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PRACTICAL VIEW 



OF 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 



FROM THE SEVENTH LONDON EDITION. 



BY T. BABINGTON, ESQ. 

LATE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 






WITH 

A PRELIMINARY ESSAY 



BY REV. T, H. GALLAUDET 



FOURTH AMERICAN EDITION 



Hartf ortK : 

PUBLISHED BY COOKE AND CO 
1831. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1831 — By 
Cooke and Co., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of 
Connecticut. 



f£9 



k 






CONTENTS. 



Page 

Preliminary Essay. By T. H. Gallaudet 1 

Chap. I. — Inadequate Attention to Religion in Education— Some of 
its Causes 17 

Chap. II. — The Period from early Infancy to the Learning to Read. 
—Faulty Course commonly pursued. — A very early attention to 
Tempers and Habits recommended.— Religion how to be In- 
stilled. — Parental Example 32 

Chap. III. — General Observations. — Parents to guard against their 
Faults in the presence of their Children. — Children, not to be 
made Playthings. — The Child's Good, and not the Parent's Ease, 
to be the Object.— The Heart to be had in View rather than the 
Outward Act.— Guard against a Child's Artifices.— Study Con- 
sistency of System. — Intercourse with your Children. — Freedom 
of Conversation. — Study of Character.— Personal Exertion in 
Education 46 

Chap. IV.— The Period between a Child's Beginning to Read and 
going to School : its Importance.— The Objects of Education, 
and their relative Value. — Commencement of Instruction in 
Reading. — Rousseau : — Education a Discipline.— Choice of 
Books. — Tones and Articulation. — Care in the Use of Religious 
Books :— Selection of them.— Catechisms 68 

Chap. V.— Mechanical Reading : how obviated.— School Lessons to 
promote Moral dualities : Obedience ; Regularity ; Attention ; 
Patience ; Alacrity.— Happy Fruits of these Qualities.— Failures 
to be expected.— How to be borne 97 



11 CONTENTS. 

Page 
Chap. VI.— Means for the Support of Parental Authority and Influ- 
ence. — Rewards and Punishments 112 

Chap. VII. — Example. — Emulation. — Effect of Personal Character 
of Parents.— Deceit 131 

Chap. VIII. — Attention to Children when not at their Lessons.— 
Amusements. — Behaviour of Children to each other. — Quarrels. 
— A Domineering, or a Teasing Spirit. — Selfishness and Jea- 
lousy. — Conduct of the two Sexes to each other. — Domestic Ef- 
fects in well and ill educated Families contrasted.— Acquain- 
tance.— Familiarity with Servants 147 

Chap. IX.— Hardihood.— Moderate Habits.— Artificial Hardships.— 
Moderation favorable to Elevation of Character.— Rules.— Pre- 
paration for Prayer.— Self-Examination.— Prayer.— How long 
Boys should be kept under Domestic Education.— Preparation 
for School.— Governess 168 

Appendix.— No. I 185 

No. II. 195 

No. Ill 196 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY, 



Infidelity and Atheism are openly avowed in our land. Nay, 
what is worse, those who reject the Bible, and deny that there is 
a God, seek to make proselytes to these appalling doctrines. 

For this purpose, plans are organized ; societies are formed ; 
meetings are held ; lectures are delivered ; books are published ; 
and the press, — the great moral lever of our country, — is put in 
motion. The Ministers of Jesus Christ are represented as a band 
of vile impostors. The Word of God is treated with contempt 
and ridicule. The Sabbath is declared to be a superstitious ob- 
servance, and worthy only of being discarded and forgotten. 
Marriage is denounced, as unnatural, selfish, and oppressive. In 
fine, Religion, with its hallowed institutions and awful sanctions ; 
and Morality, with all its restraints and obligations ; must no more 
check the innocent propensities of our nature, and man may live, 
as if Death were an eternal sleep. 

Let it not be said, that, in all this, there is no just cause of 
alarm ; that the evil will cure itself; that there is too much good 
sense, and patriotism, and piety in the community, to suffer the 
interests of religion and morality to be endangered ; that oppo- 
sition will but aggravate the mischief ; and that truth is omnipo- 
tent, and will triumph in her own majestic strength, without the 
aid of any auxiliary. 

How then has error ever gained the ascendency in any age or 
country ? Did the monster start into being, at once, in all his gi- 
gantic and terrific shape ? Was not his birth-place often unknown, 
his growth gradual, his movements insidious ? Timely resistance 
might have prevented his influence ; might have for ever annihi' 

B 



2 PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 

lated it. But he was not feared, till age had given him strength, 
and partisans, and victory. And, then, nothing but a tremendous 
conflict could resist and subdue his power. 

So it may be in our country. So it will be, if the friends of 
religion do not bestir themselves, and watch every movement of 
its enemies, and meet their covert wiles, as well as their open 
attacks, with the weapons of truth and righteousness. 

How many of our youth, especially in our large cities, are ex- 
posed to the seductive influence of the advocates of infidelity. 
Some from curiosity ; others from a false notion of independence ; 
and not a few, to overcome the reproaches of conscience, that they 
may riot in sin without remorse ; are led to listen to those who 
scoff at sacred things, to attend their meetings of free debate and 
inquiry, and to purchase and read their deistical and blasphemous 
publications. Every one thus corrupted, in his turn, corrupts 
others. The evil spreads. It is fast spreading. The mere fact, 
that a public print dares openly to avow these principles of irre- 
ligion, and finds supporters, proves this ; and shows that no means 
should be left unemployed to rescue the rising generation, the 
hope of our beloved country, from the contamination of this deadly 
poison. 

The religious education of our children and youth is our great, I 
had almost said, our only security. The advocates of infidelity 
know full well the importance of this principle ; and hence then- 
dislike of marriage, and of the domestic relations of life. Paren- 
tal government, in their estimation, is a minor theocracy ; the very 
fountain-head of slavish fear, and of all the horrors of superstition. 
They would destroy it for ever. Let marriage be dissolved. Let 
the family circle be broken up. Let the ties of kindred be known 
and felt no more. Let the children belong to the public, and be 
nurtured and educated at the public charge. Then you will be 
able to mould this ductile mass of infantile human nature, and 
form, as you choose, the combination of circumstances, of which 
these men and women in miniature are to be the creatures. All 
foreign influence being removed, these children of nature will 
begin to act in accordance with the laws of their being. Each will 
live only to be happy, and to make all others so. In the progress 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 3 

of a few generations, the tide of population will begin to flow on, 
free from every impurity ; never again to have any thing foul or 
turbid mingle in its waters. 

Yes; parental government is a minor theocracy. God, in His 
wisdom, has instituted it. How admirable this provision which 
He has made for such creatures as we are ! We have a helpless 
infancy, and a dependent childhood. We need the watchings of 
maternal solicitude, and the supplies of a father's care, to cherish 
and sustain us. The very birds in their nest exemplify and incul- 
cate this truth. The whole animal creation teaches us the force 
and the value of parental affection. But man, of all other ani- 
mals, needs to be the object of this affection, far, far the longest 
portion of time. God, therefore, has made provision for these pe- 
culiar wants of our species, by the distribution of mankind into 
families. And in the family state, man is to be prepared for all 
the relations which he is to sustain in life, as a member of society ; 
or in eternity, as a subject of God's universal empire. 

The authority exercised by the parent ; the moral influence 
which he exerts upon the child ; the confidence which the child 
reposes in him ; its filial affection, submission and obedience ; all 
these are illustrations and enforcements of the obligations that are 
yet to rest upon the child, as it grows up, in regard to God and to 
its fellow-men. In the very early stages of education, and while 
the infantile mind is not yet capable even of comprehending the 
truth, that there is an infinite and invisible Being to whom it is 
accountable, and whose will it is bound to obey ; the parent is, as 
it were, in the place of God, to the child. The parent is the superior 
being whom the child recognizes, as having a just claim to its love 
and obedience. The will of the parent often clashes with the 
will of the child. The latter learns the necessity and the duty of 
yielding. It is thus taught, that its will must submit to the will of 
another. It is prepared, in this way, both to understand and to 
recognize the authority of God himself, and to know and to feel 
that His will is to control, and to bring into complete subjection , 
the wills of all the beings whom He has formed . 

Besides, how should we ever be able to form any adequate con- 
ceptions of our Father who is in heaven, or of the endearing lela- 



4 PRELIMINARY ESSAY, 

lion in which we stand to Him, if we were not acquainted with 
the bond which unites the earthly parent and the child ? Having 
sustained this relation, we are prepared to comprehend that higher 
one in which we stand to the Father of our spirits. It is thus, 
that amid the endearments, instructions, and restraints of the pa- 
rental roof, the child is to be taught the exercise of those very 
affections, and the discharge of those very duties, which, under 
the influence of divine truth, are to form his mature character of 
piety towards God, and of good- will to men. 

Destroy marriage. Break up the family state. And the boldest 
step is taken ; most sure in its progress, and most extensive in its 
effects, — to banish from the world, both the knowledge and the 
love of Jehovah. 

The religious instruction of children, given by the parent, in the 
family, enforced by a consistent example, and accompanied with 
fervent prayer, furnishes fathers and mothers with the only well- 
grounded hope, that their offspring will be secure against the 
assaults of infidelity and the temptations of the world, and that 
they will become the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. It fur- 
nishes the philanthropist with the only rational expectation, that a 
succession of patrons and agents will follow on, one after the 
other, to sustain and carry forward the benevolent institutions and 
enterprises of the day. It furnishes the patriot with the only sure 
promise of the future welfare of his country. It furnishes the 
friends of the Redeemer with the only certain and delightful an- 
ticipation of the rapid spread of His gospel, and speedy triumph 
of His cause. Such is the lofty destiny, and such are the exalted 
privileges of the rising generation of our land. And in view of 
them, what momentous responsibilities rest upon those who are 
fathers and mothers ! 

Christian parents ! weigh well these facts and truths ; and say, 
if there are not obligations of the most solemn and affecting kind, 
pressing upon you, to attend personally, faithfully, and prayerfully, 
to the religious education of your children. 

This volume, containing A Practical View of Christian Education 
in its early stages, by Thomas Babington, Esq., is one of the best 
treatises on this subject, in our language. Its author was, not long 
since, if he is not still, a member of the British Parliament, and 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 5 

f 

also extensively engaged in commercial transactions in the city of 
London. His sentiments, therefore, repugnant as they doubtless 
will be to the feelings of those who entertain vague and low views 
of Christian faith and practice, are not to be attributed to the nar- 
rowness of his sphere of observation or of duty ; to his want of 
expansion of mind or refinement of feeling ; to his secluded habits 
and ignorance of the world ; or to a contracted and illiberal esti- 
mate of the doctrines and requisitions of the gospel. Nor is he a 
mere theorist, descanting on what might be best, and leaving plain, 
practical parents to smile at the uselessness of his speculations. 
He has himself brought up a very numerous family of children, to 
whose education he has devoted his time and attention, with an 
assiduity and frequency that very few men, engaged in public life? 
and the transactions of an extensive business, have been able to 
bestow upon such an object. What he says, therefore, is to be 
received as coming from one whose own education, of the most 
liberal and accomplished kind ; whose situation in society, affording 
him the best opportunities of an enlarged acquaintance with hu- 
man nature and the every-day duties of life ; and whose personal 
experience in reducing his principles to practice, or rather of de- 
ducing his principles from his practice ; all conspire to give great 
weight to his opinions and advice, among all parents who regard, 
as they ought, not merely the temporal, but the eternal, welfare of 
their offspring. 

In the peculiarity of his religious sentiments, Mr. Babington, 
who is of the English, Protestant Episcopal Church, agrees, in the 
main, with those expressed in the Christian Observer, or with 
what may be familiar to more of his readers in this country, the 
views of Mrs. Hannah More. 

The whole work is printed, word for word, from the seventh 
London edition ; a mode, it is thought, more fair towards the au- 
thor, and vastly more acceptable to the generality of readers, who 
wish to judge for themselves of the sentiments that are advanced, 
than to attempt, by any omissions or alterations , to make such a 
treatise conform, in all respects, to the peculiar views of an indi- 
vidual, or to any particular standard of doctrine or of duty. In 
some instances, the sentiments of the author are adapted to the pe- 

b 2 



O PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 

culiar class of society, and to the religious denomination to which 
he belonged, and to modes of educating children which do not 
prevail in this country. But, in these respects, it is not difficult 
to understand his general principles, and to accommodate them 
if they are approved, to the circumstances of the reader. 

There are some topics which are not noticed at all, or very cur- 
sorily indeed, in this work, which the writer of these preliminary 
remarks, deems of sufficient importance to present to the con- 
sideration of those parents w r ho take an interest in the religious 
education of their children, and to which he begs leave to invite 
their serious attention. 

I. The icant of religious instruction, by the parent, in the family, 
can never be adequately supplied in any other way. 

This remark is not intended to depreciate other modes of im- 
parting religious instruction to children and youth. Let such 
modes, and especially the excellent system of Sabbath school in- 
struction, receive the full amount of praise to which they are 
justly entitled. But what other teacher, with very few exceptions, 
can gain such an influence over the child, and find such easy 
access to his mind and to his heart, as the parent can, and espe- 
cially the mother, if she has the love of God in her soul. One 
important object which the Author of our being doubtless had 
in view, in constituting this endearing relation, was, to make it 
the means of unfolding the intellectual and moral capacities of 
the child, and of preparing him to comprehend and appreciate the 
truths of Revelation, through the agency of the parent. From what 
other human being, if family government has been preserved, 
and the child inspired with filial confidence, and obedience and 
love, can instruction be received with such attention, docility, and 
reverence, as from the lips of a kind and pious father or mother ? 
After having secured that attachment and respect which the 
watchfulness of parental solicitude has produced in the breast of 
infancy and early childhood ; after having induced those habits 
which are indispensable to the beneficial reception of religious 
instruction ; and after having communicated the elements of this 
instruction to the expanding and inquiring mind ; how can the 
parent cease to carry on a work so auspiciously begun, — how can 



preliminary essay. 7 

such advantages, so happily secured, be abandoned, — and the 
tender vine be transplanted from its native soil, to be reared under 
the care of a foreign and strange hand ! 

Let it not be said, that the case supposed is an extreme one, 
and rarely, if ever, has an existence. In all its aggravating cir- 
cumstances, it may not often be found, and especially among 
pious fathers and mothers. But it is worthy of serious inquiry, 
to what extent parental responsibility is weakened, and parental care 
diminished, by the provision which is made, in other ways, for the 
religious instruction of youth. 

The children have their Sabbath-school lesson to leam during 
the week. How far is this considered as supplying the place of 
direct religious conversation and instruction, on the part of the 
parent ? How many hours are rilled up by a quiet attention to 
this lesson, affording the parent the better opportunity to transact 
the common concerns of the family, which formerly used to be 
devoted to the actual communication of divine truth to the child ? 
The books, too, which are drawn from the Sabbath-school library, 
or borrowed from the neighbor, or purchased at the book-store, 
excellent indeed in their kind, and deserving an important place 
in the course of religious education, — are they not, also, often 
made to discharge the duty of the parent, and to exonerate from 
the task of becoming a teacher of babes ? 

The Sabbath returns ; hallowed, among other objects, for the 
very purpose of religious instruction in the family. The fathers 
daily occupation, and the mother's weekly cares, are suspended. 
The little group surround the table and the fire-side. All without 
and within is quietness. Is the occasion, thus furnished by God 
himself, employed as it ought to be ? Or rather, does not the 
preparation for the Sabbath-school, with the time which it con- 
sumes, and the belief of the parent, that there, all that is im- 
portant of religious knowledge will be communicated to the child, 
serve to abate his interest in his own personal discharge of duty, 
and to lead him to enjoy that ease which is so grateful to human 
nature ; under the impression that a system of instruction, approved 
everywhere by the wise and the good, and which he himself con- 
tributes to support and cherish, by his influence and his prayers, 



8 PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 

is doing all for his offspring which "can be accomplished, and ren- 
dering unnecessary any individual efforts of himself or his partner ? 

The little one who lately hung on the lips of its father or 
mother, to learn something of God and its soul, and of its destiny 
beyond the grave, as soon as an elder brother or sister can conduct 
it to the Sabbath-school, is sent thither, and thus transferred to 
a new teacher, yet to learn its disposition and habits, and to inspire 
it with confidence and affection. The parent, shall I say, is re- 
lieved of one more burden ; in a way, too, to remove all anxiety, 
and to satisfy the demands of conscience. 

Are these things exaggerated ? Is not the original to the pic- 
ture which has been drawn, often to be found ? And much as 
Sabbath-schools ought to be encouraged, and sustained, and ex- 
tended throughout the length and breadth of the land, deserving 
the prayers, and the support of all the friends of their country 
and of the Redeemer ; are there not some dangers attending them, 
of the kind that have been mentioned, and which need to be 
pointed out and avoided ? 

No parent, surely, however faithfully his children may attend the 
Sabbath-school, and be prepared too for this attendance, can offer 
this as a reason, or plead it as an excuse, for the neglect of per- 
sonal, unremitted, and prayerful attention to their religious instruc- 
tion in the family. 

Doubtless there are instances, and these very numerous ones, 
where there is such entire neglect of religious instruction, on the 
part of the parent, that the Sabbath-school is the only means of 
supplying this defect ; and a few other cases, in which incompe- 
tency seems to forbid the hope of the child's receiving any benefit 
in the bosom of the family. But the evil alluded to still exists, 
and to no inconsiderable extent. And it seems to be an impera- 
tive duty, for ministers of the gospel to press their obligations 
upon parents, and for parents seriously to consider the weight of 
these obligations ; and while the child is sent regularly, and with 
careful preparation, to the Sabbath-school, to take care that the 
salutary influence there employed, and the excellent instruction 
there communicated, shall have their efficacy increased and ren- 
dered sure, by accompanying efforts and prayers under the paren- 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 9 

tal roof How else can the express command of God be complied 
with, or His blessing be implored or expected ? 

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy 
heart t and thou shalt teacKthem diligently unto thy children, and 
shalt talk of them, when thou sittest in the house, and when thou 
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou 
risest up. 

II. The religious instruction of children should be made a promi- 
nent part of the whole course of their education, and blended with all 
their other studies and pursuits. 

We are commanded, " whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever 
we do, to do all to the glory of God." That religion is but little 
worth, the spirit of which does not manifest itself in the daily con- 
cerns and intercourse of life. Children should early be taught this 
important truth, both by precept and by example. But they will 
not feel its force, if religious instruction is communicated to 
them in a solemn, formal way, and only on certain recurring oc- 
casions. 

Suppose a parent is anxious that his child should understand 
and practise the rules of what is termed good breeding, and that 
he should acquire the air and manners of refined society. Will 
he give a set lecture on the subject once a week, and then furnish 
illustrations of his principles in a very grave and ceremonious 
manner ? Will he not rather seek occasion, daily and familiarly, 
to lead the child to imbibe those feelings, and to adopt those 
habits, which, in his opinion, constitute true politeness ? And 
why ought not a similar course to be pursued, if the paramount 
desire of the parent is, that his offspring should possess, and ex- 
hibit in their daily life and conversation, that " wisdom which is 
from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be 
intreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality, and 
without hypocrisy." 

The sooner the child can be taught to feel and to act as an im- 
mortal being ; to consider this life as but the threshold of an eter- 
nal existence beyond the grave ; and to make all its occupations 
and pursuits subservient to the honor of its Maker, to the cause of 
the Redeemer, and to the best interests, both temporal and spi- 



10 PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 

ritual, of its fellow-men; — the sooner is the great object of 
Christian education accomplished. 

If it is the duty of the mature Christian to blend the very spirit 
of his religion with all his studies, and business, and intercourse 
with his fellow-men ; and continually to bear in mind the con- 
nection which things temporal have with things eternal ; and to 
inscribe holiness unto the Lord upon all his occupations and pur- 
suits ; — why should not the child be educated on the same ele- 
vated principles, and inspired with the same heavenly desires, and 
form the same consistent habits of thought and of action. 

But it is too often the case, that the education of the children, 
even of pious parents, is conducted far differently. In fact, two 
processes of influence, and example, and instruction are going on ; 
one, to prepare them to do well in the world, in accordance with the 
maxims and the spirit of the world ; the other, (ah ! in how lan- 
guid and desultory a way it is pursued,) to prepare them for the 
approach of death, and the retributions of eternity. Six days in 
the week, they must conclude, for the most part, from the general 
tenor of the conversation which is addressed to them, or w T hich 
they hear, in the family circle, the school-room, or the common 
walks of life, that this world is their only stage of action, and 
that their great aim should be, to secure wealth, respectability, 
and distinction. The Sabbath, indeed, and now and then some 
unexpected occurrence in Providence, leads them to more serious 
reflections, and they are gravely told, that they are strangers and 
pilgrims on the earth, and that they should seek a better, a heavenly 
country. 

Why this strange inconsistency ! Why this want of harmony 
of influence, of unity of design, of singleness of purpose, in train- 
ing up the heirs of immortality ! 

What must a child think of this striking fact which is con- 
tinually presented to his observation ? He hears his parent, and 
his Sabbath-school teacher, and his minister declare, that the con- 
cerns of the soul are more important than all others ; that his 
happiness in eternity depends upon his embracing the offers of 
salvation through Jesus Christ ; and that delay in doing this may 
prove his eternal ruin. And yet the individual to whose rare he is 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 11 

principally entrusted during six days of the week ; who is the 
source of most of the knowledge that he is acquiring to prepare 
him for usefulness and respectability in life ; whose influence in 
forming his modes of thinking and of acting, his whole character 
and habits, is usually quite equal, and often superior, to that of 
the parent ; his daily instructer expresses no interest, gives no ad- 
vice, inculcates no precepts, communicates no truth, with regard 
to the welfare of his immortal spirit. How can he account for 
this ? His parents, and the parents of all his school-mates, he 
must conclude, have confidence in his teacher, or they would not 
place their children under his care. And yet this teacher, to say 
the least, is neutral on the subject of religion ; never accompanies 
his injunctions with any appeal to the sanctions of duty towards 
God ; never reproves misconduct, or punishes disobedience, with 
a reference to that omniscient eye that sees us at all times, and to 
that awful tribunal before whom we must all stand, to render an 
account for the deeds done in the body ; never encourages to do- 
cility and industry, to obedience and kindness by the winning 
motives which revelation affords ; never invokes the divine 
blessing on himself and his little flock, or explains to their under- 
standings, or impresses upon their hearts, the interesting and af- 
fecting truths of the sacred oracles ! 

Now, what must the child think of all this ; for think he will, 
and draw his own conclusions. Must he not suppose, that, after 
all, religion is not such an important matter, as he has sometimes 
been taught to believe, and that, at least, he need not take a 
deeper interest in it than the mass of people do who are around 
him? 

Is there no remedy for these evils ? In a land called Christian ; 
among those who profess to be the disciples of Jesus Christ, and 
who admit, in principle, the solemn obligations which they are 
under, to train up their offspring in the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord ; shall no regard be had to the religious character of the 
teacher who has the care of their children, the greater part of the 
time, and whose example and influence have upon them an effect, 
that must be felt not only in this world, but in that which is to 
come. I say no regard ; for how prevalent the opinion is, that 



12 PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 

intellectual qualifications, and a good moral character, are the 
only requisites to be sought after in selecting a teacher of 
youth. 

It is admitted, that piety, in such cases, is not always to be 
found, and that such is the state of society, and the difficulties 
growing out of those differences which exist among the various 
religious denominations, that very often, this defect cannot be 
remedied, and must be submitted to. 

But is the general apathy on this subject justifiable ? Would 
not a spirit of conciliation and of compromise often produce a 
better state of things ? Surely, if the whole Christian public 
could be made to view this matter in its true light, in the light of 
eternity, and to appreciate the worth of the immortal souls of their 
offspring, sectarian feelings would be laid aside ; there would be 
a demand for pious teachers of youth ; their numbers would gra- 
dually increase ; and the blessing of heaven would rest upon one 
of the most efficacious means of grace, — the conducting of the whole 
course of education upon the principles of the gospel; and the 
training up of children and youth, to perform all the duties, and 
attend to all the concerns of life, with a continual reference to the 
relation in which they stand to God, and the bearing which their 
conduct here is to have upon their eternal destiny. 

Such a course, so far from casting the gloom of what some 
consider a religious melancholy, over all the business and inter- 
course of life, would prove the very means of divesting religion 
of formality and constraint, by blending it with all our feelings, 
and conversation and conduct ; by applying its principles to the 
thousand, nameless, every day occurrences which constitute the 
happiness or the suffering of the great mass of mankind ; by 
transfusing its spirit of peace and love into families, and neigh- 
bourhoods, and communities ; by redeeming it from the reproach 
which it has now too often to bear, that its professors can pray 
and preach, but do not practise ; by making it a familiar com- 
panion, and not an occasional censor and judge ; and thus shedding 
a cheerfulness, and conferring a dignity upon all that we do or 
suffer, by connecting it all with the, will of our Father who is in 
heaven, and with His gracious assurance, that [all things shall 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 13 

Work together, for the eternal good of those who put their trust in 
him. 

III. The Bible should be made the great instrument of government 
in families, and in schools. 

The most efficacious kind of government, is that which is ex- 
ercised through the medium of moral influence. Physical force 
may control the outward conduct, and in some cases, it is abso- 
lutely necessary, but it rarely reaches the heart. The rod cannot 
safely be laid aside ; but the less frequent the necessity there is 
of using it the better. The more the child can be brought to un- 
derstand with a clear conception, and to feel with a delicate sen- 
sibility, the distinctions between right and wrong ; to yield to the 
influence of motives addressed to its sense of duty ; and to act as 
a free, moral agent, on its own accountability, and with a view to 
the consequences of its actions ; the sooner will it begin to ac- 
quire settled principles of thought and of conduct ; to form habits 
of self-control ; to enjoy the satisfaction of* doing well, and to 
tremble at the reproaches of conscience for doing ill ; and thus to 
be prepared for those responsibilities which must rest upon it, 
when it is no longer under parental inspection and guardianship. 

The great secret of governing children, is to teach them self-go- 
vernment. Unless this is, sooner or later, acquired, the child con- 
tinues to be a mere automaton, moving at the will of another, 
and fit only, when arrived to mature age, to be a conscript in the 
army of some military despot. God has made us rational, free, 
and accountable moral agents. Even He himself will not use 
physical force to compel us to love and obey Him. His request 
is, my son, give me thine heart. 

My son, give me thine heart. Let this be the motto, adopted by 
every parent and teacher in the government of children and youth. 
Point them to their Father who is in heaven ; to the Saviour who 
died to redeem them ; to the Spirit of holiness who alone can 
purify their hearts. Bring them to the Bible as soon as they can 
be made to comprehend at all, that it is the word of God. Tell 
them that it is the letter of His love, sent to them, to them indi- 
vidually, to them personally. Make them feel its awful sanctions. 
Recite to them its wonderful history. Explain to them its doc< 

c 



14 PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 

trines and precepts, so far as they are capable of understanding 
them. Let them know, that by this sacred book, they will finally 
be judged. With tender solemnity, unfold to them what it reveals 
of their eternal destiny, and of the only way of securing the sal- 
vation of their souls. Especially, let Jesus Christ, in all his en- 
dearing traits of character, and in all the fulness of his mediatorial 
office, he presented to them, frequently, earnestly, affectionately, as 
the friend of children ; as the friend of sinners ; as their only 
Saviour ; who, if they trust in Him, and obey His precepts, and are 
faithful in His service, will assuredly guide and protect them 
through life, sustain them in death, and receive them, at last, to 
the mansions of eternal rest. 

When children feel, or speak, or do wrong, let the parent or the 
teacher, with great self-possession and kindness, and yet with 
equal firmness and authority, reason with the little offender out of 
the word of God. Bring him to the divine standard. Convince 
him of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, by a direct appeal to 
the highest of all authority, to the declarations of God himself 
Make him perceive and feel that he has sinned against God, and 
done evil in His sight. Lead him, if possible, to a genuine con- 
trition of soul. Make use of the occasion, to show him that he 
has not only this sin, but many others, to be repented of, and that 
he needs the forgiveness of his sins, through the merits of Jesus 
Christ, and the sanctification of his heart, through the influences 
of the Holy Spirit, before he can hope for the blessing and favor of 
God in this life, and for communion with Him in that which is to 
come. 

I would not be understood to mean, that this is to be done at all 
times, with equal formality and solemnity, or that it is to be done 
on every slight occasion, and for every trivial offence. But the 
mere recital of a text of Scripture, appropriate to the character 
and conduct of the child, accompanied with a reference to the 
omniscient eye, and to the supreme authority, of the great Lawgiver, 
will, in roost cases, produce an effect more sensible and more 
abiding, than any exhibition of the inferior authority of the parent 
or the teacher. 

The truth is,— and it has been tested in some families, and 



PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 15 

schools, and institutions for the instruction of youth, — the more 
prominent the authority of God is made, speaking through His written 
word, and the authority of the parent and teacher, made subordi- 
nate to it, and merely instrumental in carrying it into effect, the 
more easily have the child and the pupil been brought into a state 
of uniform subordination and obedience. 

Let the experiment be fairly tried, and it will be found, that in 
this, as in all other cases, God will honor and bless his own truth, — 
that divine word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than any two- 
edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the joints and 
the marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart. 



A 

PRACTICAL VIEW 

OF 

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 



CHAP. I. 



Inadequate Attention to Religion in Education. — Some 
of its Causes. 

Most persons have occasionally met with a new- 
mansion, showy in its appearance, and commanding 
a fine prospect, but destitute of that first of all re- 
quisites — good water. Captivated by the beauties 
of a favorite spot, and anticipating a long and happy 
residence in the midst of attractive domains, the 
gentlemen who build houses sometimes forget that 
there are certain necessaries of life, for the want of 
which none of its embellishments or honors can com- 
pensate. A similar disappointment, but of a more 
affecting nature, very frequently awaits the builders 
of that figurative house — a family of children. Their 
parents have taken the greatest pains to enable them 
to make a figure in the world ; but they have ne- 
glected to use the proper means for furnishing their 
minds with certain items in the catalogue of qualifi- 
cations for a useful, respectable, and happy life — 
namely, religious principles and habits. The house 

c 2 



18 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

is erected ; but, alas, there is no water ! — That those 
who despise religion should not wish the minds of 
their children to be imbued with it, is natural and to 
be expected ; and that those who, while they osten- 
sibly acknowledge the value of religion, yet hold 
that the heart of man is naturally good — and that 
the evils which abound in the world may be ascribed 
to the prejudice of nurses, the reveries of enthusiasts, 
the craft of priests, and the tyranny of rulers — 
should deem religious education almost superfluous, 
is by no means surprising. However, such charac- 
ters would slight all my admonitions, and therefore 
it is in vain to address them. Those whose attention 
I would solicit are decent and respectable parents, 
who wish to entertain those views of human nature, 
and of the duties of man, which the holy Scriptures 
exhibit. That such persons should venture to hope 
that their children will perform, in subsequent life, 
the duties they owe to God and their fellow-crea- 
tures, when little care has been taken to prepare 
them for this great work, is perfectly astonishing. 
Do we form such absurd expectations in other 
things ? Does any man suppose that his son will be 
fit for any profession, or business, without substan- 
tial and persevering instruction ? Does he venture 
to send him out into the world as a lawyer, a sur- 
geon, or a tradesman, without a long preparation, 
expressly calculated to qualify him for the line of 
life to which he is destined ? And yet how many 
fathers expect their children to maintain the charac- 
ter of Christians, with very little appropriate educa- 
tion to lead them to conquer, through Divine grace, 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 19 

their natural alienation from God, and to become 
new creatures under Christ their Saviour! God 
does not treat man in this manner, but furnishes 
him, in the Scriptures, with the most august and 
persuasive teachers, and the greatest variety of in- 
struction and exhortation, calculated to turn him 
from darkness to light, and to induce him to crucify 
the flesh with its affections and lusts. But man, 
deaf to the Divine voice, which pays, " Go and do 
thou likewise," and deaf also to the call even of pa- 
rental affection, not seldom suffers the early years 
of his offspring to pass without any systematic and 
adequate plan of instruction and discipline expressly 
calculated for the attainment of those great ends. 

But let us view this subject a little more narrowly. 
Is a son intended for a learned profession ? He is 
sent to school. The father is earnest that the master 
should ground him well in grammar, give him a 
taste for classical literature, and call forth his powers 
in composition. Afterwards, when the youth is re- 
moved to the university, a college and tutor are se- 
lected with anxious care to promote his intellectual 
improvement. An earnest solicitude is felt that he 
should become a sound and elegant scholar; and 
inquiring friends are told what progress he makes 
in his literary pursuits. — Again : suppose that a more 
humble walk in life is chosen by the parent, and that 
his boy is to be a tradesman : with what care does 
he select a master who perfectly understands his bu- 
siness, and will be likely to make the boy thoroughly 
acquainted with it ? And as the years of apprentice- 
ship draw towards their close, he is solicitous that 



20 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

his son should be instructed in all the higher parts 
of the trade, that he may be in no respect deficient, 
when he becomes his own master, and is to establish 
himself in life. Let any one who allows these to be 
just pictures of parental care in providing for the 
worldly interests of children, say how seldom their 
spiritual interests are the object of equal solicitude. 
Are masters chosen with the same care for the pro- 
motion of these interests ? In fixing on schools and 
colleges for boys destined to the higher professions, 
and on masters and counting-houses for those who 
are to move in a more humble line, it is a matter of 
prime consideration to select those which are known 
to be favorable to true religion ? During education, 
is the progress of the boy in religion watched with 
unremitting solicitude, and promoted by all those 
measures which solicitude suggests? Are pains 
anxiously taken to remove all the obstacles in the 
way? And finally, is the boy himself removed 
(when that is possible) to a more favorable situation, 
if those obstacles are such as essentially to counter- 
act his advancement in religious attainments ? In 
most cases, I fear, even where better things might 
be hoped, these questions must be answered in the 
negative. The efforts made in favor of the religious 
improvement of youth are partial and unsystematic, 
and generally cold and languid. But, even when 
accompanied by a considerable degree of earnest- 
ness, they very seldom evince a care and thought 
at all proportioned to the greatness of the object. 
An attention to the externals of religion is enforced, 
and glaring sins are forbidden and punished ; and 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 21 

perhaps also the leading principles of the Gospel are 
occasionally inculcated ; — but are the temper, the 
taste, and the habits narrowly watched? Is evil 
counteracted, not only in its commencement, but 
even before it appears, by guarding against dispo- 
sitions and practices which, though not wrong in 
themselves, are dangerous from their natural al- 
liance with those which are so ? Are the dawnings 
of good early descried and carefully cherished ? And 
above all, is the youthful mind continually taught 
to raise itself to the only source of safety and 
strength ; to be diligent in self examination, peni- 
tence, prayer, and praise ? I fear it can seldom be 
said that a plan of this kind is followed earnestly, 
assiduously, and, with due allowance for casual in- 
terruptions, daily from youth to manhood. And yet 
earnestly, assiduously, and daily is the child taught 
his reading and spelling ; the school-boy his gram- 
mar and classics ; the academician his Euclid, Locke, 
and Newton ; and the clerk or apprentice his mas- 
ter's business. Can we consult our experience on 
these points without exclaiming; What prudent 
care in human things ! What negligence in divine ! 
The result of such negligence may easily be antici- 
pated, and is lamentably apparent in the character 
and habits of our young men. 

Is this negligence to be accounted for from any 
peculiar facility with which Christian truths are im- 
bibed, and Christian habits formed ? Is the path of 
true religion so easily discovered, and so inviting, 
that the young scarcely want a monitor to point it 
out and recommend it to their choice ; while that of 



M A PRACTICAL VIEW 

human science is thorny, and arduous, and disgust- 
ing, and never willingly chosen ? Let the word of 
God and human experience answer. In fact, truth 
requires that this picture should be almost reversed. 
Religion is that which is, beyond all things, repulsive 
to the nature of man; while human science has 
many charms for him, and meets with little oppo- 
sition from his native propensities. In inculcating 
religion we are rolling a stone up-hill, which must 
be watched every moment, or it will soon bound 
down again ; nor can we hope to make any progress 
in our work without continued and painful efforts. 

To those who acknowledge the natural propensity 
of man to evil, and yet take so little pains to correct 
it in his education, I cannot refrain from addressing 
a few expostulations. Do you act in a similar man- 
ner with respect to any corporeal deformity to which 
your children may be subject? Do you not take 
the best medical advice, and persevere, perhaps for 
many years, and at a great expense, and with very 
serious inconveniences both to yourselves and your 
child, in the use of such means as may be recom- 
mended to you for his recovery ? And yet the evil 
you labor to correct probably affects only one part 
of his frame ; or the efforts of unassisted nature may 
remove it ; and even if he should carry it with him 
to his grave, it may not be fatal to his present wel- 
fare, much less to his future happiness. But the 
disease to which his soul is subject is universal, per- 
vading all its faculties and dispositions. Nature, 
instead of affording a remedy, is its source, and, if 
not counteracted, will infallibly render it more and 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 23 

more desperate ; and the evils it threatens are of in- 
finite magnitude, and of eternal duration. What, 
then, can you think of your negligence ? Are you 
not most cruelly deficient in your care of your off- 
spring? And how will you render an account to 
that Being who has given you a sacred charge to 
act as his vicegerents in their education ? 

The causes of those lamentable and very general 
defects in religious education which have been no- 
ticed are various. At present, I will mention only 
two or three of them. 

When parents, though they may have a great 
respect for religion, are not truly religious, there is 
no difficulty in accounting for their lukewarmness in 
providing for the religious education of their children. 
If they do not consider Christianity as the pearl of 
great price ; if in practice they make it rather the 
handmaid of their worldly interest and pleasures, 
than the unrivalled empress of their hearts, and the 
sovereign guide of their actions : if this is practically 
the estimation in which they hold it, of course, they 
will give it but a second, a third, or a fourth place 
among the objects on which their view is fixed in the 
education of their children. If, in their passage 
through life, they do not in fact (whatever they may 
hold in theory) sacrifice their own profit, or pleasure, 
or reputation, at the shrine of Religion, when these 
cannot be secured without some dereliction of duty, 
it must be expected that, whatever they may profess 
as to their plans of education, they will in fact attend 
more to the worldly advancement, or pleasure, or 
reputation of their children, than to their progress 



24 



A PRACTICAL VIEW 



in vita] Christianity. As such parents, however, 
frequently lament in themselves defects which they 
have not a heart to remedy ; let them be asked whether 
they would willingly see their offspring in the same 
state of thraldom, pursuing a course which they 
disapprove, and breathing fruitless wishes after that 
holiness which they have not the courage to prac- 
tise. If their minds revolt at this prospect, let them 
endeavor, in their choice of masters and instructors, 
to rescue their children at least from the evils which 
press upon themselves. They may think it imprac- 
ticable in their own case (though in truth if they un- 
dertook the work in a right spirit, they would con- 
quer every difficulty by the all-powerful aid of Divine 
grace) to break through inveterate habits, and to 
brave, amidst a circle of acquaintance, like them- 
selves, the books, the language, the demeanor, to 
which a prompt and universal obedience to the calls 
of duty would expose them. But let them have pity 
on their offspring ; and put them in a course which, 
with God's blessing, may preserve them from the 
galling fetters which bind ther parents. 

There are certain classes of upright Christians, 
(and I solicit their attention with far better hope,) 
whose efforts in the great work of Christian Educa- 
tion are feeble, from causes of a very different kind. 
Two of these causes, which arise immediately out 
of their religious principles, I will now mention. 

Some parents, of a truly Christian character, are 
of opinion, that although the instruction of the 
head is in a good measure left to man, God vindi- 
cates to himself in a peculiar manner the empire of 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 25 

the heart, and carries on his own work of conver- 
sion in his own way. They therefore regard human 
endeavors to lead the hearts of the young to God as 
(to say the least) of very doubtful efficacy ; and 
perhaps look with some jealousy on a very sedulous 
use of means, for the attainment of this object, as 
indicative of a disposition to depend on means, rather 
than on the power and mercy of God. They hope 
that if they preserve their children as far as may be, 
from the contamination of the world, make them 
well acquainted with the Christian doctrine, and 
use them to a regular attendance on religious ordi- 
nances, He will hear the earnest prayers offered up 
for them, and in His good time work on their affec- 
tions and bring them to Himself. These sentiments, 
in which there is a specious mixture of truth and 
error, are accompanied by Christian graces and 
habits which have a powerful tendency to counter- 
act their practical effects. Parents who are wanting 
in sedulous attention to their children, are often very 
strict in the 'examination of themselves, and eminent 
for tenderness of conscience, for hatred of sin, for 
love of holiness, and for adorning the Gospel of their 
Saviour, by presenting in themselves no dubious 
image of that mind which shone forth in him. By 
an attentive observer, however, well acquainted with 
the interior of their families, the operation of the 
foregoing opinions will not unfrequently be distinctly 
traced : and in whatever degree they operate, their 
tendency must be to weaken, if not to paralize, pa- 
rental exertions. The hearts and the habits of the 
rising generation will not be watched with due so- 



'26 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

licitude ; and evils will not be checked and antici- 
pated, nor promising appearances cherished, with 
that wakeful and unremitting anxiety which the 
incalculable importance of education demands. Na- 
ture, with its corruptions, will be allowed to gather 
strength ; and grace, if assisted will be feebly as- 
sisted, by parental co-operation, (a co-operation 
which must itself also be altogether the fruit of 
grace), till the little victims of this false system con- 
tract a most pernicious and fatal habit of hearing 
and repeating religious truths with indifference, and 
sometimes perhaps are in nearly as bad a state as 
the offspring of irreligious parents. 

How can such a case be contemplated without 
an unusual share of pity ? Of pity for children with 
bright prospects so blasted ; and for parents, whose 
very piety, under partial and therefore mistaken 
views of Gospel-truth, prepares disappointment and 
bitter pangs in future life, if not eternal ruin, for 
those whom they have brought into being, and 
whom, under a better system of education, they 
might have found their glory, and joy, and crown of 
rejoicing in the great day of the Lord. 

That the parents have adopted partial and erro- 
neous views of religious truth, who can doubt? 
God is, in the strictest sense, the Giver of all good, 
both in the natural and in the spiritual world ; but 
in both he employs means to effect his objects ; and 
the well-directed efforts of his creatures form a most 
important branch of those means. Who expects to 
reap if he will not sow, or to read if he will not learn 
his alphabet? Nor is the connexion between the 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 27 

acquisition of spiritual advantages and the use of 
means less intimate. Thus, though Christ is our 
salvation, yet the salvation of mankind is spoken of 
in Scripture as depending on the exertions of the 
Apostles and their followers. They are called the 
light of the world. When it is declared, that they 
who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, 
immediately afterwards, for the special purpose, as 
it should seem, of pointing out the absolute necessity 
of employing means, the Apostle proceeds to ask, 
"How then shall they call on him in whom they 
have not believed ? And how shall they believe in 
him of whom they have not heard ? And how shall 
they hear without a preacher ? And how shall they 
preach except they be sent?" (Rom. x. 14, 15.) And 
in strict conformity with this view of things, he de- 
clares himself willing, in his own ministerial labors, 
to spend and be spent for the benefit of others ; and 
charges his spiritual son Timothy, in the episcopal 
office assigned to him, to be instant in season and (by 
a sort of hyperbole of speech, arising from his deep 
impression of the unspeakable importance of exer- 
tion,) out of season. So when indolent or bad teachers 
are mentioned, the efficacy of means is no less 
strongly marked. Under the Mosaic dispensation, 
the sins of the people are continually ascribed to the 
negligence or the false doctrine of the priests. Our 
Saviour holds similar language when, speaking of 
the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees, he says, 
that " if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into 
the ditch." And, under the Gospel, the effect of the 
errors of the well-meaning but mistaken builders of 



28 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

" hay, straw, stubble," on the true foundation, Christ, 
is pointedly noticed. It is declared, that such teachers 
shall suffer loss ; their people not being prepared by 
them to abide the fiery ordeal by which every teacher's 
work, that is, the flock converted by him to Chris- 
tianity — was to be tried. (1 Cor. iii. 11 — 15.) So fatal 
would be the effect of the wrong measures taken by 
them in their Christian ministry ! — Not to multiply 
quotations, I will close what I have to advance on 
this head with pointing out some few parts of Scrip- 
ture respecting the very case before us; namely, 
the instruction of children. How earnestly does 
Moses charge the Israelites to teach the law to their 
children, as they rise up and sit dozen, and come in and 
go out! Could he have more strongly characterized 
instant, constant, unremitting instruction ? Solomon 
is scarcely less pressing in his exhortations to train up 
a child in the ivay in which he should go ; and he is most 
distinct in his promise of a blessing and success to 
such instruction. When the Lord appeared as an 
angel to Abraham, he plainly intimated, that the pa- 
triarch's exertions, among his children and the rising 
generation in his household, would be effectual as 
means of securing them in the true faith. (Gen. xviii. 
19.) And I cannot but think that children were al- 
lowed to partake of the initiating rites of circum- 
cision and baptism, at so early an age, on the general 
presumption that the appointed means, if duly em- 
ployed by their parents and sponsors, would secure, 
under God's blessing, the great object of conversion 
to God. 
If this view of the scriptural doctrine respecting, 



0F CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 29 

not the importance only, but the necessity of using 
means zealously, diligently, unceasingly, for the at- 
tainment of spiritual ends, be just ; what shall we 
say of those parents who excuse their want of as- 
siduity and vigor, in taking proper measures to im- 
press the hearts, as well as to inform the understand- 
ings, of their children, on the plea that conversion 
is God's work, and that the times and the seasons 
for carrying it on are in his hand ? I will not argue 
with them, but leave them to the admonitory voice 
of their own conscience. When we look forward to 
the advancement of religion among the rising gene- 
ration, there are no promoters of that great work on 
whom we fix our eyes with so much hope as on 
pious parents. How deeply then must we lament 
that there should be found among them such princi- 
ples as I have mentioned ; which — operating on pa- 
rental partiality, or love of ease or other dispositions 
unfavorable to watchfulness and vigor in conducting 
education — present us, in a spiritual sense at least, 
with " ashes and mourning," in families where we 
expected " beauty and the oil of gladness !" 

But the foregoing error is most to be deplored 
when joined with another, also arising from a source 
which challenges our respect and veneration; I 
mean, the hope entertained by some parents, remiss 
in the spiritual nurture of their children, that the 
promised blessing to the offspring of pious ancestors 
will be realised, sooner or later, in their conversion. 
On the influence of such a sentiment, when united 
with that which was last under consideration, I need 
not dwell. Every one must see that when, on the 

D 2 



30 



A PRACTICAL VIEW 



one hand, a low opinion is entertained by parents of 
the efficacy of human endeavors, in leading their 
children to true conversion ; and on the other, a hope 
is indulged that the great Shepherd will, at some 
time or other, gather them to his fold ; the efforts in 
education will be altogether destitute of watchful 
and persevering energy, and the worst effects may be 
expected. Whether, however, this latter sentiment 
be combined with the former or not, it is of an im- 
portance sufficient to claim our serious attention. 
Let us then examine how far it is warranted by 
Scripture and experience. Those who hold it, rely 
on the numerous passages in the word of God, in 
which a blessing is promised to the seed of his true 
servants, and more particularly on the gracious 
declaration in the Second Commandment. These 
Divine promises are sources of great comfort to 
Christian parents, strenuously exerting themselves 
in bringing up their children in the nurture and ad- 
monition of the Lord. What numbers have been 
supported by them, when toiling, apparently without 
success, in the discharge of their parental duties ! 
But even those who are so employed may expect 
more than the promises were intended to convey. 
And if such persons, the very persons for whose 
benefit the promises were given, may look forward 
for the conversion and final salvation of their chil- 
dren with unwarranted confidence ; what shall we 
say of confidence, what shall we say even of hope, 
in those who are ill performing the duties of parents, 
and who, though they will scarcely allow it, make 
the promises themselves the ground of their neglect ? 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. SI 

How far a misplaced hope of this kind may have 
contributed to the lamentable declension, in many 
instances, of succeeding generations from the piety 
of those which preceded them, cannot be deteraiined : 
but certain it is, that such declensions stain the page 
of history in almost all times. Look at the succes- 
sors of Joshua, and of the Elders of his appoint- 
ment ; at the sons of Samuel and of Eli, of Jehosha- 
phat, and of Josiah ; at the descendants from the 
members of the first Christian Churches, as well as 
of the Churches reformed from Popery ; at the de- 
scendants from the pious ministers ejected in this 
country at the time of the Restoration, and from 
their hearers: in short, search the annals of the 
Jewish or Christian church in almost any age, and 
you will be convinced that the piety of ancestors is 
very far indeed from being a security to their off- 
spring. 

To humble, zealous, well-directed, and persevering 
efforts, in the work of Christian Education, God 
gives a signal blessing : but those who will not em- 
ploy such efforts, have no ground to expect any 
blessing. They may rather look with awful appre- 
hension to the curses every where denounced in the 
word of God, against those who have mercies placed 
within their reach, but will not accept them in the 
appointed way. 



32 A PRACTICAL VIEW 



CHAP. II. 

The Period from early Infancy to the Learning to read- 
Faulty Course commonly pursued — A very early At- 
tention to Tempers and Habits recommended — Religion 
how to be instilled — Parental Example. 

The years which precede manhood are naturally 
divided into several periods. The first is, from early 
infancy to the time when the child begins to read. 
The next is, from that time to the time of going 
(if a boy) to school or to a private tutor ; and, if a 
girl, to the age of ten or twelve. On the present 
occasion my remarks will be confined to these in- 
cipient but highly important stages in education. 

The period of infancy is generally suffered to slide 
away with little or no attention to the work of edu- 
cation. The child is supposed to be in a kind of 
irrational state, which will scarcely admit of moral 
discipline, and its parents seem to think only of its 
health and amusement. If it wants any thing, its 
wish must be gratified ; if it cries, it is to be quieted 
by indulgence ; or if this cannot be effected, attempts 
are frequently made to cheat it into a belief that the 
desired object has suddenly vanished, If it has been 
hurt, the immediate cause of its misfortune, whether 
animate or inanimate, is not seldom to be beaten, and 
the child itself is encouraged to join in inflicting the 
punishment. Things proceed in this way nearly 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. S$ 

till the time when the child can talk, and often much 
longer ; and when this system is changed for another, 
still it gives way very slowly, and in many cases 
some remains of it may be discerned for years after 
the child is allowed to be capable of instruction. 
What is the true character and tendency of this 
course of proceeding? It unquestionably fosters 
those seeds of evil which abound in our nature. Is 
man naturally self-indulgent ? What then must be 
the effect of a studied system of indulgence ? Is he 
impatient, and passionate, and vindictive? How 
greatly must these dispositions be cherished, by not 
only permitting but encouraging their gratification ! 
Is he disposed, when in pursuit of favorite objects, to 
be little scrupulous with respect to violations of plain- 
dealing and truth ? The artifices to which nurses 
and female relations resort would almost create such 
a disposition, were it not originally in his bosom. 
With what eyes, then, must the Almighty look upon 
such a course of proceeding ! It would be trifling 
with my readers to pursue this topic any further. 

But now we proceed to the important inquiry, 
What system of management ought to be substituted 
in the place of that which has been described ? All 
persons who do not think that a plea of necessity 
(a very unfounded plea, however, in the present 
case) may be urged in favor of the practice of posi- 
tive evil, must allow that every thing should be 
avoided by mothers and nurses which has a ten- 
dency to cherish and bring into activity that de- 
praved nature, which — if there be any truth in Scrip- 
ture, or any reliance can be placed on experience — 



34 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

we all bring into the world. They will grant there- 
fore, that Nanny, or the cat, or the chair, are not to 
be slapped because they happen to have displeased 
the child. But must not we confine ourselves to 
mere abstinence from fostering evils? Is it not 
visionaiy and chimerical to attempt to check bad 
tempers and habits, and to lay a foundation for good 
ones ? Or if an attempt of this kind be not altoge- 
ther hopeless, is it not at least unnecessary to make 
it at so early a period, when little success can be 
expected ; and most advisable to defer it till the rea- 
son of the child is further advanced, and its ability 
to submit to discipline is greater ? My experience 
gives me a view of parental duty very different from 
that to which these questions would lead. The Al- 
mighty Creator very soon begins to unfold in man 
those intellectual and moral faculties which are des- 
tined, when rightly employed, to qualify him for the 
highest services and enjoyments through the ages of 
eternity. In a few weeks after its birth, the child's 
reason begins to dawn ; and with the first dawn of 
reason ought to commence the moral culture which 
may be best suited to counteract the evils of its 
nature, and to prepare the way for that radical 
change, that new birth promised in baptism,* and the 

* The reader's attention is called to this passage, that he may 
weigh well the import of the sentiment which it contains. The 
language is susceptible of two meanings. Does the author in- 
tend to say, that a radical change, a new birth, actually takes place 
in baptism, and that every child, at the very time of administering 
this ordinance, receives the sanctifying influences of the Holy 
Spirit, and is created anew in Christ Jesus ? Or, which more pro- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 35 

darling object of the hopes of every parent who 
looks on the covenants in that holy rite, not as forms 
but as realities. Let me appeal to every mother 
who delights to view her infant as it lies in her lap, 
whether it does not soon begin to read " the human 
face divine," to recognise her smile, and to shew 
itself sensible of her affection in the little arts she 

bably is his meaning, does he intend, that, at the time of baptism, 
the future regeneration of the child, his being born of the Spirit, 
is promised to such parents as enter into this covenant with that 
living and affectionate faith which entitles them to this blessing on 
their offspring, as a fulfilment of the divine engagement ? 

The former opinion has no sanction from the sacred Scriptures, 
and is at variance with the testimony of experience. Where has 
God promised, that He will invariably, or that He will ever, grant 
the renewing and sanctifying influences of His Holy Spirit to the 
baptized infant, at the very time of performing this rite. The 
general law in His kingdom of grace, as well as of nature, is, that 
He acts through the instrumentality of means. In the case of 
adults, we are expressly taught, that of His own will, they are begotten 
by the word of truth ; that their faith comes by hearing, and hearing by 
the word of God ,• and that they are sanctified through the truth, the 
truth of the word of God. Divine truth is the instrument which the 
Spirit of God uses in the conversion of sinners, and the renovation 
of their hearts. This is the general law. We have no right to 
consider the case of infants dedicated to God in baptism, as fur- 
nishing an exception to it, without His express declaration to that 
effect. 

Besides, if every baptized infant is born again and created anew 
in Christ Jesus, how happens it, that there are so many lamentable 
instances, in which the child, as its intellectual and moral character 
is developed, gives not the least evidence of piety, and lives and dies 
without a shadow of such evidence ? Can such a mighty, such a 
radical change take place without any perceptible effect upon 
the heart and the conduct ? 



36 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

employs to entertain it. Does it not, in no long 
time, return that smile, and repay her maternal ca- 
resses with looks and motions so expressive that she 
cannot mistake their import ? She will not doubt, 
then, the importance of fostering in its bosom those 
benevolent sympathies which delight her, by banish- 
ing from her nursery whatever is likely to counter- 
act them. She will not tolerate in a nurse that selfish 
indifference to the wants of an infant, which some- 
times leaves it to cry while she finishes her breakfast 



With regard to the other opinion, that, in baptism, the future 
regeneration of the child by the sanctifying influences of the Spirit, 
is promised to the believing parent^ it is a question of very serious 
import, and of difficult decision. Are there any express promises 
in Scripture to that effect ? Is there any thing in the nature of 
the ordinance which implies this pledge on the part of God ? How 
far can the parent feel assured, that his child will undoubtedly 
receive this blessing, unless he also feels assured, that he himself 
will continue faithfully and constantly to use all the appointed 
means of grace, in the future education of the child, in bringing 
it up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ? Nay, how far 
can he feel assured, that God gives this pledge, unless the church 
of Christ, also, of which he is a member, and into which he 
wishes to introduce his child, shall fulfil its part of the engage- 
ments, in watching over the lambs of the flock ? These inquiries 
are serious and affecting. And let every reader who wishes to 
arrive to a satisfactory result, in deciding the important ques- 
tion referred to in this note, consider well the solemn obliga- 
tions which rest upon Christian parents, and upon the Christian 
church, with regard to baptized children, and the extent to which 
these obligations are fulfilled, before he too hastily concludes, 
that the dedication of his offspring to God in baptism, however 
sincerely and faithfully it may be performed, will of itself insure 
the renovation of their hearts by the Holy Spirit. 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 37 

or chats with a companion. Much less will she 
tolerate passionate snatches and scolding names, and 
hard and impatient tones of voice, in the manage- 
ment of her child. I may be pronounced fanciful ; 
but I certainly think it would be of importance to 
keep sour and ill-humored faces out of a nursery, 
even though such faces were not commonly accom- 
panied by corresponding conduct. I am persuaded 
that I have seen a very bad effect produced by a face 
of this kind on the countenance and mind of an 
infant. Is it not reasonable to suppose, that if an 
infant sympathises with a smile, it may also sympa- 
thise with a scowl, and catch somewhat of the in- 
ward disposition which distorts the features of the 
nurse ? Thus begin the efforts of a parent to cherish 
all that is benevolent and affectionate in the bosom 
of a child ; and to prevent the growth of every thing 
of an opposite nature. And who shall presume to 
assign limits to the importance of such efforts in the 
education of a being whose leading disposition, if it 
fulfil the will of its Maker, must, both through life and 
through all eternity, be love ? 

But parental cares soon extend. In a short time, 
impatience and selfishness show themselves in a 
child, and are accompanied by fretfulness, jealousy, 
anger, and envy. At so early a period does innate 
corruption display its powers, and call for the re- 
straining hand of a parent! But how are these 
evils to be counteracted at an age when both the 
body and mind are so tender, and when neither ar- 
guments nor explanations can be understood ? Un- 
doubtedly great delicacy of treatment js required 

E 



38 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

The character of the child must be studied ; and, if 
possible, such correctives must be applied, as will 
not deeply wound its feelings. It is surprising what 
female ingenuity, quickened by maternal tenderness, 
will achieve in this way. Does a child, too young 
to listen to reason, want something it ought not to 
have ? Its mother will suddenly turn its attention to 
another object, and thus prevent the rise of improper 
tempers, or arrest them in their course. Is it jealous 
of the attention paid to a brother ? While she per- 
severes, perhaps, in showing to the brother the kind- 
ness which has raised this jealousy, she will pour 
such a stream of affection on both the children as 
shall at once show them how much each is the ob- 
ject of her love, and lead them by sympathy to feel 
a similar love for each other. This will be the best 
antidote to jealousy. But cases will arise, in which, 
with all her ingenuity, she will not be able to effect 
her purpose in this way. On such occasions if the 
child is too young to understand reason and persua- 
sion, she will as far as possible, shorten and sweeten 
its trial, but without fostering bad dispositions in its 
bosom ; if it is a little older, she will endeavor to 
turn the trial to good account, by holding up to it 
such Christian and filial motives as suit its capacity 
and character. These will be accompanied by such 
a description and exemplification, on the one hand, 
of the effects they ought to produce, and of the sun- 
shine of soul to which they lead ; and on the other, 
of the hatefulness of the fault in question, of the 
unhappiness which must attend the commission of 
it, and of the regret and bad consequences which 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 39 

must follow ; as may, by God's help, prepare its ten- 
der mind for spiritual discrimination, and a spiritual 
taste, (if I may so speak,) and give its infant affec- 
tions some bias on the side of God and duty. 

But how, some parents may ask, how can this be 
effected at so tender an age ? It seems to us impos- 
sible. Believe me, much may be done, with very 
young children, by placing gradually before them, 
with cheerfulness and affection, and in a spirit suited 
to the occasion, religious truths, associated as much 
as may be with images pleasing to their minds. The 
appellations, God and Jesus, should soon be made 
familiar to them ; and the dwelling-place of these 
Divine Persons may be so pointed out and described ; 
and their power and their holiness, and more espe- 
cially their love, may be so set forth and brought 
home to the feelings, by little and simple illustrations, 
that, while the tender mind is imbued with the first 
rudiments of religious knowledge, reverence, and 
affection for Divine things, if God smile on the en- 
deavor, shall be excited in the heart. But special 
care must be taken not to give fatiguing lectures, 
nor to make too powerful calls on the feelings. 
" Here a little and there a little," must be the parent's 
motto in conveying instruction at this age ; and for 
that little, the seasons must be chosen when the child 
is most likely to lend a willing ear : and the subject 
must always be dropped before it becomes tiresome, 
unless there be some very pressing call for its being 
continued ; in which case, indeed, the occasion itself 
will generally make it interesting. Very short and 
simple stories from Holy Writ may be employed 



40 A PRACTICAL VFP;\\ 

with great advantage ; as that of Jesus taking the 
little children in his arms and blessing them ; that 
of his restoring the widow's son to life ; and many 
others. If these are told in a cheerful manner, and 
with such little appropriate touches as will present 
the scene to the imagination of the child, they will 
seldom fail to delight it, and will be called for again 
and again. When they are fixed in its memory, it 
is evident with what great advantage reference may 
be made to them when the parent finds occasion to 
have recource to dissuasion, or reproof, or exhor- 
tation. 

In conveying instruction, it is a most important 
point for the parent always to bear in mind, that 
far more may be done by exciting the sympathy of 
the child than by appealing to its reason. Things 
indeed should always be presented to it in the garb 
of truth and good sense : but unless its feelings are 
in unison with its convictions, it may be perfectly 
persuaded of truths without being influenced by 
them in practice. And how are the appropriate 
feelings to be excited in its bosom ? Chiefly by the 
feelings of the parent being in unison with the sub- 
ject on which he speaks. Is he dwelling on the 
greatness of God, or on his all-seeing eye, or on his 
eternity, or on his glory ? Let his own heart har- 
monise with his lofty theme, and probably the right 
string in that of his child will vibrate. Is he describ- 
ing the Divine love, and tenderness, and mercy, es- 
pecially as exemplified in Jesus Christ ? If his own 
feelings are impressed by the picture he presents, 
those of his child are not likely to be altogether un~ 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 41 

moved. But reverse the case as to the parent, and 
what is to be expected from the child ? Who can be 
so absurd as to hope, that when religious truths are 
taught as a schoolmaster teaches the grammar, 
good impressions will be made on the heart? Do 
we see, in fact, that when the Catechism is so taught, 
any such impression is made ? Step into a village- 
school where that excellent compendium of our holy- 
religion has been learnt merely as a task, and you 
will find the children as little affected by Its truths 
(even if they understand it) as they are by the 
lessons in their spelling-book. One would almost 
think that they conceived it pointed out the high 
privileges and the sacred duties of the inhabitants of 
the moon, and that they had nothing to do with it 
but to get it by heart. Few, if any, parents, it is 
hoped, who make religion a branch of education, 
proceed in a way so utterly irrational as the gener- 
ality of village-schoolmasters in teaching the Cate- 
chism ; but in whatever degree the approach to the 
village-school system, in that degree must they look 
for a similar result. If 

" Si vis me flere, dolendum est 
Primum ipsi tibi,"* 

be a just description of human nature, when applied 
to adults, it is doubly and trebly so in the case of 
children. Adults have been used to attach certain 

* If you would have me weep, you must first be affected with 
grief yourself. 

E 2 



4-2 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

feelings to certain truths and certain incidents, the 
recurrence of which will do much towards exciting 
those feelings ; but children have not yet learnt, 
(except in some obvious instances,) how the circum- 
stances of life will influence their own welfare, and 
the welfare of others ; and therefore it is no wonder 
that their feelings should not be excited, until they 
see how others feel. The great Creator has ordained, 
that in early childhood all the powers and faculties 
of man shall be placed under the guidance, and in a 
very great degree under the forming hand of his 
parents. His feelings are as ready as his intellectual 
powers to take the impression that may be given 
them. How strong are the prejudices imbibed from 
parents in early youth! When pains are taken 
to produce a similarity, how clearly do we see the 
prominent features in the manners, habits, and feel- 
ings of parents reflected in their offspring ! A little 
Gipsey is an adult Gipsey in miniature. I am told 
that among the Gentoos a like similarity is very ap- 
parent ; and I have myself been struck by it among 
the Quakers — a sect whom I by no means mention 
to dishonor. Why may not the potent engine which 
produces such striking effects among these and other 
classes of men, and often promotes feelings and 
habits adverse to good sense and propriety, to good 
order or to true religion, be employed in favor of the 
best interests of man and the glory of God ? To 
suffer it to lie idle, is folly and sin. But in fact it 
will not be absolutely idle. One thing or another 
children will always be catching from their parents ; 
and, through the corrupt bias of human nature, 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 43 

they will be far more ready to catch the evil than 
the good : and even in copying what is innocent, if 
not positively good, in parents, they will be very apt 
to give it some turn, or associate it with some qua- 
lity, which may make it subservient to evil. What 
then is likely to be the effect of negligence in this 
great point ? In truth, can we look around us, and 
not have lamentable proofs of its effect ? How many 
children of good parents do we see imitating little, 
in parental example, but neglect of duty ! In the 
parent, this neglect has been chiefly visible perhaps 
in education ; but the child, as might be expected, 
extends it much farther. Or, suppose the parent to 
be led by a blind fondness to humor his child, to 
overlook his faults, and to allow himself to omit the 
present duty of restraining and ruling him, under 
some vague hope that a more favorable time will 
arrive for the exercise of his power, or that God will 
in his own time, by his own providence, and by the 
teaching of his own Spirit, correct the faults which 
the father tolerates. Shall we not be extremely 
likely to find that a child so educated will chiefly 
resemble his parent in giving way to self-delusion 
and self-indulgence, and in indistinct and unscrip- 
tural reliance on future gifts of Providence, to the 
neglect of present duties? But it is not only by 
copying his faults that a child derives evil from a 
parent ; if care be not taken, qualities and habits 
innocent, or even commendable, will be so caught or 
so imitated by the child as to administer to the gra- 
tification of his evil passions. — Is the parent ener- 



44 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

getic ? Let him guard against his child's adopting 
his energy as an engine of pride or ambition. — Is he 
jocose ? His playful humor may be imitated by the 
child, for the purpose of putting aside serious thought 
or vigorous application ; or of indulging in ridicule 
or satire ; or of practising tricks not consistent with 
simplicity and sincerity of character, and employed 
probably for selfish purposes. Nay, unless care be 
taken, Piety itself in a parent, that child of Heaven, 
may lead to fanaticism, or cant, or hypocrisy in a 
child. Certain tones and gestures, which (though, 
as I think, to be avoided) are in the parent the ac- 
companiment of true communion with his Maker, 
often become quite pitiable or disgusting in the 
child, not being connected with those deep devo- 
tional feelings which can alone make them tolera- 
ble ; or, if so connected, being utterly unsuited to 
his age. 

This subject may be pursued farther ; but enough 
has been said to excite the reflections of well-mean- 
ing parents; and those reflections will naturally 
point to the particular circumstances of each indi- 
vidual, and be far more useful than any thing I 
could add. No one can doubt the deep responsibility 
of every parent to make a good use of his power 
over the dispositions and affections of his offspring. 
And since in exercising that power, nothing will be 
so operative as his own example, how earnest should 
he be, that the light which shines in him may be the 
true light of the Gospel, purified as much as may be 
from every thing that may obscure or defile it ! 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 45 

And also how earnest should he be to join to such 
an example a sagacious watchfulness, and even a 
holy jealousy, to prevent his child from misunder- 
standing it, or the principles and motives from which 
it springs ; and to prevent a perverse or deceptious 
use being made of it ! 



46 A PRACTICAL VIEW 



CHAP. III. 

General Observations — Parents to guard against their 
Faults in the Presence of their Children — Children not 
to be made Playthings — The Child's Good and not the 
Parent's Ease, to be the Object — The Heart to be had 
in View rather than the Outward Act — Guard against 
a Child's Artifices — Study' Consistency of System — 
Intercourse with your Children — Freedom of Conver- 
sation — Study of Character — Personal Exertion in 
Education. 

I shall proceed to offer to parents some general re- 
commendations, which may guard them against 
evils not uncommon in families, and may shorten 
my remarks on many of the details of education in 
subsequent parts of this essay. 

1. Let a parent be particularly on his guard 
against his faults and weaknesses when in the bosom 
of his family. 

The reverse is not seldom the case. The circum- 
spection and restraint practised abroad, are often 
greatly relaxed at home. Here liberties and self-in- 
indulgences are thought more allowable; wrong 
tempers are not instantly repressed in the bosom, and 
are suffered to deform the countenance, and also 
sometimes to break out in unchristian tones, ex- 
pressions, and conduct. We must all have observed 
this in others ; and few of us, I conceive, are uncon- 
scious of having been sometimes taken by surprise 
on the entrance of a friend, and of having felt that 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 47 

it was necessary to recall both the mind and the 
face to greater serenity and benignity, in order to 
receive him properly. Now, can we seriously think 
that a heart and a countenance unfit for our friend, 
was fit for our children, who surrounded us before 
his arrival ? Can we estimate the mischief which 
such moral deformity, placed before their eyes in the 
person of their father, may produce! Some one 
says, that no man is a hero before his valet-de-cham- 
bre. I will not stop to inquire what is becoming in a 
hero ; but a Christian certainly ought, if possible, to 
be mare a Christian before his family, where his in- 
fluence is greatest, and the effects of his example the 
most important, than in any other situation. Juve- 
nal has said, " Maxima debetur pueris reverentia ;"* 
though his view of education was only to prepare 
youth for an upright and able discharge of their 
common duties in this life, with little regard to God 
or eternity. How deep then ought this maxim to 
sink into the heart of a Christian, whose views are 
so much higher, and who is to educate beings called 
to perform all their duties as those who now sit in 
heavenly places, and are kings and priests unto 
God! 

2. Never make mere playthings of your children. 

Many fathers treat their little ones as if nothing 
was to be sought in their society but mutual amuse- 
ment. All is good humor when they are together ; 
and therefore all is supposed to be right, though 
there be little besides folly and self-indulgence on 

* The most circumspect deportment should be maintained in 
the presence of children. 



43 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

one side, and improper liberties, caprice, self-will, or 
artifice, on the other. In short, there seems to be a 
sort of conspiracy between the parties to indulge 
the natural man. The child is often even taught to 
be indecorous, and mischievous, and saucy, for the 
amusement of its parent. What excuse can be 
made for such a scene ? The poor child is greatly 
to be pitied : but really the parent, if we were to 
look no further, would appear to be a sort of mon- 
ster, devoid of principle, of feeling, and of common 
sense. Follow him, however, to his serious occupa- 
pations, and you may find him a useful and respec- 
table man. What a shame, that he is insensible to 
the high destiny and unspeakable value of the little 
creature whom he is spoiling for the sake of half an 
hour's fooling trifling ! W^hat would he say of any 
one who threw about his gold repeater as if it were 
a ball, or sported with his wife's jewels as if they 
were marbles ? And yet his own folly is infinitely 
greater. The creatures whom he is placing in such 
danger for his sport are infinitely more precious 
than gold, which perisheth; and pearls and dia- 
monds are worthless compared with them. One 
would think that mere selfishness might restrain 
such absurdity even in a man who did not extend 
his view beyond this world. The time may come, 
when the evil fostered in the child will be a scourge 
to the parent, and when his sufferings will excite the 
less compassion in others, from their recollection that 
these scenes of egregious folly had undermined that 
natural respect which would otherwise have been a 
check to ill conduct on the part of his child. May 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 49 

parents, then, never relax with their children ? Must 
they always sustain the grave character of a tutor ? 
Most certainly they may, and ought, frequently to 
relax with them, and even to take pains to make 
them happy by joining in their little amusements : 
but they may combine this course of proceeding 
extremely well with a constant recollection of the 
immortal nature and high value of their children, 
for whom Christ died, and with a suitable behaviour 
towards them. A father will soon learn, in such 
playful moments, " miscere utile dulci ;" or, accord- 
ing to our English proverb, to " be merry and wise ;" 
and he will rank such seasons among those which 
are most important for checking what is wrong in a 
child, f3Stering what is right, instilling good princi- 
ples, infusing a just appreciation of things, and a 
taste for what is lovely and of good report. All the 
good seed sown on such occasions will be so com- 
bined with the child's pleasures and affections, as, 
with God's blessing, to take deep root in the soul, 
and promise a vigorous and permanent growth. 

3. In managing a child, let a parent always have 
the child's good, rather than his own ease, in 
view. 

In domestic education, when parents speak to 
their children, in a tone of dissatisfaction, what is 
heard so frequently as, " Don't be so troublesome !" 
It is true, children ought not to be suffered to be 
troublesome, since both kindness and propriety for- 
bid them to be so : but the tone of the complaint 
generally shows very clearly that the great grie- 
vance is, not that the child has those dispositions 



50 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

which make it troublesome, but that others, and par- 
ticularly the complainant, are troubled. Thus the 
child soon discovers, that it is corrected rather for 
the ease of its parents and attendants, than for its 
own good ; and it has before it an example and a 
lesson of selfishness, which may do it as much harm 
as it receives benefit from the check given to a bad 
habit. — What ought to be done on such occasions ? 
Undoubtedly the troublesome practice should be 
prevented ; but this should be done in such a way 
-as to show the child that the parent would willingly 
submit to trouble, to promote its good ; but that 
such dispositions as lead it to trouble others, are un- 
holy, and must be eradicated. The pleasure a 
Christian will have in giving pleasure, and his pain 
in occasioning pain, must be pointed out, and proved 
and illustrated. As nothing is to be combated in 
children with more care and perseverance than sel- 
fishness, so nothing is to be more strictly guarded 
against in parental example. The child is to be 
taught to make sacrifices cheerfully, and to deny 
himself, and take up his cross ; and the parent must 
be especially careful that his own example forward 
the learning of this difficult lesson. On occasions in 
which the admonition is, " Don't be troublesome," 
would not "Don't be thoughtless," "don't be vio- 
lent," or, " don't be unkind," often be more appro- 
priate ? Is it expedient very generally to use a mode 
of expression which points to the effect rather than 
the cause of a child's conduct, — to the inconve- 
niences brought on others, rather than to the state 
of his mind ? 






OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 51 

4. In correcting a fault, look to the heart rather 
than to the outward act. 

How common is it for parents to pursue the op- 
posite course ! They are satisfied with condemning 
and preventing wrong conduct, without much at- 
tending to the temper of mind in which their ani- 
madversions are received ; and the child is often left 
unhumbled and discontented, and in a state as dis- 
pleasing to God as when it was committing the fault 
in question. This mode of proceeding appears to 
me essentially wrong, and productive of serious 
evil. It does not bring the child to repentance before 
God, and to peace with him. It directs its view to 
the maintenance of decency in externals, rather 
than to a jealous scrutiny of its motives and dis- 
positions, and an earnest desire of reconciliation 
with its God, after having offended him. Though 
these marks of true repentance cannot be expected 
at so early an age in their full extent, yet a broad 
foundation for them is often laid during the two or 
three first years of infancy. On the other hand, 
when we see a child scowl, or snatch up his shoul- 
ders, or pout and redden, on being blamed, can the 
rebellious and unbending spirit within be doubted ? 
Is he humbled ^for his fault, and in a spirit to forsake 
it and seek forgiveness ? Is there any putting off of 
the old man, and putting on of the new man ? And 
yet, can it be denied, that this is the only temper to 
which the promise of pardon is made? It is the 
temper in which adults must come to Christ for par- 
don and peace ; and it is therefore the temper to 



52 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

which, from the very dawn of reason, we should en- 
deavor to bring children. 

In our endeavors to effect this great object, kind 
and mild and serene, but unyielding, perseverance is 
to be employed. There must be neither violence 
nor hurry. If the child is impatient, some constraint, 
if necessary, must be used to prevent ebullitions of 
passion or fretfulness, and time must be given for it 
to recover itself; then steady, and unwearied, but 
calm and affectionate, addresses to its reason and 
feelings, suited to its age, and habits, and natural 
disposition, must be employed. The sagacity and 
ingenuity of the parent must be tasked to select the 
best topics, and handle them in the best manner for 
the production of the desired effect. But, above all, 
his eye must be upon God for guidance and a 
blessing, and for putting his own mind in the frame 
best adapted to win upon the affections of the child, 
and impress his heart. The dawnings of a right 
spirit in him must be hailed; openness and confi- 
dence must be courted and encouraged ; the kind- 
ness of God and Christ to penitents must be as fully 
and touchingly pourtrayed as their hatred of sin. 
Care must be taken not to overstrain or overpower 
the feelings ; and when any danger of doing so ap- 
pears, a pause must take place till they are relieved, 
and self-command is regained. This course admits 
of great variations, and must be carefully adapted 
to the age and character and attainments of the 
child : but I think I can say from experience, that it 
will seldom if ever fail of ultimate success, if stea- 
dily and habitually pursued. It may be said to 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 53 

begin from nothing ; and for several months a very 
small part of it will be brought forward, though there 
will be a continual progress as the mind of the child 
opens, and something right in moral feeling and habit 
is established. He will begin to learn the difference 
between being good and naughty ; then, that though 
he desists from doing a naughty thing, he continues 
naughty till he is sorry for it and good-humored; 
and then, and not till then, he may expect the kiss 
of forgiveness, and regain the favor of his parent. 
Next he will be taught to reflect on his happiness 
when good, and on the pain he suffers when naughty ; 
and he will be told that this is from God, who loves 
goodness and hates naughtiness, as he sees his 
parents do. Then he will proceed to learn that, like 
his parents, God expects sorrow for sin, and a mild 
and humble prayer for forgiveness, before he will 
forgive a naughty child, and love him, and make 
him happy. While this is in progress, the parent 
will endeavor to make the child feel the evil and 
folly of naughtiness, and the beauty and true wis- 
dom of being good. This will not be very difficult 
to inculcate, when the child is sensible that sin and 
misery, and holiness and happiness, generally go to- 
gether. During the latter part of this course, gos- 
pel facts and principles will be gradually opened. 
The child will have heard of Christ ever since he 
first heard of God ; and now the distinct character 
and offices of Christ will begin to be unfolded. He 
will be painted as the Friend of mankind ; as the 
great Refuge of all who have done wrong ; as al- 
ways willing to help them, and beg his Father to 

f 2 



54 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

forgive them ; as all kindness and goodness, and as 
setting us an example of all that is lovely and ex- 
cellent ; and as now exalted in glory, and all- wise, 
and all-powerful. Pains will be taken to make him 
the object of affection attempered by reverence, and 
to make it pleasant to the child to please him, and 
painful to offend him. The child will in like manner 
be made acquainted with the Holy Ghost, and hea- 
ven, and hell, and the day of judgment, and eter- 
nity, and the lost state of man, and redemption. All 
these things will be taught with an immediate refer- 
ence to practice and the heart. They must be un- 
folded gradually, and with a strict attention to the 
abilities and temperament of the child ; and especial 
care must be taken, that by God's blessing the 
feelings shall be properly affected as the understand- 
ing is informed. 

5. Be on your guard against the little wiles and ar- 
artifices which children will soon employ to obtain 
their ends. 

It is surprising how ingenious and adroit they 
will be in this way. They will endeavor to do, as 
mere play, something which they know to be wrong 
and forbidden ; and to put you off by a laugh and 
a joke when you require them to acknowledge that 
they have done wrong. These little tricks lead to 
much evil. They undermine sincerity and simplicity 
of character ; and instead of being amused by them, 
as is often the case, a parent should view them with 
concern, and in that spirit carefully repress them. 
It is a good general rule in early youth, that nothing 
shall be said or done in joke which would be wrong 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 55 

if in earnest. More latitude may be allowed to those 
who are grown up : but children cannot discriminate 
between what is innocent in jokes, and what is not ; 
and if they could, they have not sufficient steadiness 
of principle, and sufficient self-command, to confine 
themselves within the proper bounds, when suffered 
in their moments of gaiety to approach the brink of 
what is wrong. It is of the greatest possible impor- 
tance, to preserve the mind from the taint of cun- 
ning and deceit ; and therefore we ought to be more 
anxious to avoid doing too little than too much to 
secure this point. Simplicity and integrity of char- 
acter, the great foundation of every thing good, de- 
pend upon it. 

6. Do all you can to secure a consistency of sys- 
tem in the management of your children. 

It is quite apparent how indispensable it is that the 
father and mother should at least not counteract 
each other. If they do not and cannot think alike 
on the subject of education, by mutual concessions 
and accommodations they should pursue a similai 
plan with their children. Grievous are the conse- 
quences when they proceed differently. The children 
presume to erect themselves into judges between 
their parents : they play off one against the other. 
Not only one parent sinks in their esteem, but they 
often lose respect for both, and are disobedient to 
both. Thus the Fifth Commandment is habitually 
broken; and bad principles and bad habits are as 
likely to be established by education in a young 
family so circumstanced, as good ones. Let me 
entreat parents to shun this fatal rock. If one 



56 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

of them is conscious that the other is best qualified 
for the work of education, let such parent be dis- 
posed to yield points as far as duty will allow, and to 
strengthen the hands of the other. And even that 
other, instead of presuming- on superior ability in 
this line, and carrying matters with a high hand, 
and peremptorily insisting on points respecting 
which there may be a difference of opinion between 
them, should proceed with as much accommodation 
as can be made consistent with duty ; and where a 
point cannot be yielded, still the suaviter in nwdo* 
should be practised with peculiar care, and the ne- 
cessary duty performed in a way as little grating 
and offensive to the parent who disapproves, as may 
be. Let the more enlightened parent recollect, that 
an indifferent plan of education, in which parents 
harmoniously join, will generally answer much bet- 
ter than a superior one respecting which they differ. 
Besides, by kind accommodations, the misjudging 
parent is often won by degrees to see things in a 
more just light, and to acquiesce in a better system. 
Where both parents act on principle, and refer to the 
Bible as their standard, and do not interpret it in a 
very different way, a degree of accordance, which 
will answer tolerably well for practical purposes, 
may reasonably be expected. The greatest difficulty 
arises when one of the parents does not act on prin- 
ciple, or refers, substantially, to a different standard 
from the other. Even in these distressing cases, the 
suaviter in modo^ on a true Christian foundation, will 
do wonders. It often disarms hostility and counter- 

* Mild and pleasant. t A gentle and accommodating manner. 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 57 

action, and leaves the young family very much in 
the hands of the parent best qualified to educate it. 
And I fully believe, from personal observation, that 
the Divine blessing rests in an uncommon degree on 
the labors of a Christian parent so unhappily cir- 
cumstanced, and fruits follow excellent and abun- 
dant beyond all human expectation. With what 
pleasure have I seen a majority of the young mem- 
bers of a family, most lamentably exposed to temp- 
tation by one parent, snatched out of the fire, as it 
were, by the pious and constant, but meek and un- 
assuming, labors of the other ! 

In families where the parents proceed harmo- 
niously and well in the work of education, their 
plan is often lamentably counteracted in the nursery, 
or the school-room. If the children are indulged 
there in bad tempers and habits ; and still more, if 
they there meet with bad examples ; with passion, 
or pride, or deceit, or a love of ease and luxury ; all 
which is done in the parlour may be undone, and 
perhaps more than undone : and notwithstanding all 
the efforts of the parents, the progress of the- child 
may be not in good, but in evil. Even on the most 
favorable supposition, the fruits produced by the 
exertions of the parents, under such circumstances, 
will be scanty and crude. The bias of nature will 
be so in favor of what is wrong, and so against 
what is right, that, if Divine Grace did not wonder- 
fully favor the exertions of true piety in education, 
the task of the parents would be hopeless. How 
carefully, then, should nurses and others, who are 
put about children, be selected! And how atten- 



58 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

tively should the course of things in the nursery and 
the school-room be watched and regulated! To 
this end, the nurse or the governess should be im- 
pressed with a sense of the very high importance 
which the parent attaches to good tempers and good 
habits ; to which must be added, good principles, if 
the child is old enough to understand them. But it 
will by no means be sufficient to endeavour to make 
this impression by general declarations. It must be 
made in detail and by example, and with a perse- 
vering, but not a harrassing, recurrence to those 
points which seem to be not sufficiently understood, 
or not properly carried into practice. The vigilant 
eye of the parent will always be wanted to keep 
things in the right course, as well as to put them 
into it at first. It must be laid down as a principle, 
that nothing must be concealed by the child. That vile 
maxim against telling tales out of school (vile, when 
employed to keep parents in ignorance,) must be ut- 
terly proscribed ; and openness and confidence must 
be zealously cultivated, both in the child and in those 
who have the charge of him. But the parents must 
not trust to being informed of every thing important 
to be known. They must delicately, but affection- 
ately, make the requisite inquiries; and also take 
care by personal inspection (conducted, however, 
with kindness and delicacy to the nurse or the govern- 
ess) to ascertain the real state of things. But, with 
all that can be done, it will seldom be found possible 
to put the management of children in the nursery 
on a truly good footing. The class of persons to be 
employed is so ill-educated and unenlightened, and 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 59 

such of them as are pious are generally so inju- 
dicious, that not only the plan of the parent with the 
child will scarcely ever be even tolerably maintain- 
ed when the child is out of his sight, but positive and 
serious evils will be produced and cherished. It is 
highly important, therefore, that the child should be 
as much with the parent as circumstances will per- 
mit. Every hour in the society of a parent who un- 
derstands education, and pays proper attention to it, 
is an hour gained to moral improvement, and, (as 
far at least as regards children yet in the nursery) is 
too often an hour redeemed from what is far from 
deserving that appellation. In whatever way the 
child is employed, whether in talking or playing, a 
moral lesson may be instilled, moral habits may be 
encouraged, and bad ones repressed : the parent will 
continually be obtaining a greater insight into the 
child's character, and the child greater affection for 
its parent. Thus good will be doing, and a founda- 
tion laying for still greater good. Indeed, God 
seems to me to afford no slight ground for presum- 
ing that children should be much with their parents, 
by making the society of each so pleasant to the 
other, where the parent performs his part as he 
ought, and the child has not been spoiled by excess- 
ive indulgence in some other quarter. But the evi- 
dence of his will, which arises from the benefit re- 
sulting to the child, and also, I believe, to the parent, 
from this intercourse, is irrefragable and decisive. 

It often happens, however, that there is an incon- 
sistency in education more to be deplored than any 
which has yet been mentioned : — this is the incon- 



60 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

sistency of the parent with himself. The author of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews, contrasting the correc- 
tion employed by parents with that used by the Al- 
mighty in his government of his true servants, says, 
" They, " (the parents) " verily for a few days chast- 
ened us after their own pleasure,* but he for our 
profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." 
What a picture is this ! God, the Sovereign Proprie- 
tor of all his creatures, invariably pursues the good 
of those whom he deigns to call his sons, in all the 
discipline to which he subjects them ; while man, 
who can call nothing his own, who is a mere trustee 
under the Almighty, who, in his conduct towards 
his children, should always bear in mind that both 
they and he are bought with a price, and that not 
his own gratification, but the will of God, should be 
his rule in all he does as a father, — man presumes to 
forget his imperious duties in education, and to 
make it his object to please himself rather than his 
Sovereign Lord ! If we did not continually see the 
fact, we should not believe it possible that the work 
of education would be so often carried on under the 
supreme influence of selfishness. His own ease and 
convenience and the indulgence of his own feeling and 
humor, frequently seem to engage a father's first at- 

* A friend has intimated that the Greek phrase, translated " after 
their own pleasure," would be better rendered " as they thought 
fitting." If the latter be the real import of the original, the pas- 
sage will not form so broad a foundation for my observations as if 
it were that given in our translation. But however this may be, 
I am convinced that the extent of the evil pointed out in them is 
but too fully proved by fact and experience, 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 61 

tention in his proceedings with his children ; and, ex- 
cept in striking cases, which oblige him, as it were, 
to depart from so lax a system, the good of the child 
is clearly made, in practice, though not in theory, a 
secondary object : so true is the description of the 
Apostle : he proceeds according to his own pleasure, 
rather than for the profit of his children. When 
education is not conducted so very ill, and the good 
of the child is generally the main object of the parent, 
and his own inclinations are generally made to bend 
to it ; yet, in many families, this general course is 
subject to most numerous and grievous exceptions. 
When the stimulus to self-gratification is strong, the 
parent yields to it, the rules of good education are 
violated, and the child cannot but be injured. The 
injury (unless God avert it) will be in proportion to 
the extent of this fault. Some portion of it is found 
in all parents: but I am speaking not of a few 
thinly scattered instances rarely occuring, such as 
must be expected from so weak a creature as man 
even in his best estate, but of its more frequent and 
glaring recurrence, to the serious interruption of a 
good system of education. 

Now it is clear that this fault, in whatever degree 
it may exist, is an enemy to consistency of conduct. 
As it proceeds from the parent yielding to a different 
motive from that which ought to actuate him, and 
sometimes at least does actuate him, when with his 
children ; this new motive must lead to different re- 
sults from those which would flow from the other, 
and produce inconsistency. But this is by no means 
all. A man with whom self-gratification is a lead- 

G 



62 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

ing motive, is inconsistent with himself. He will 
conduct himself towards his child according to his 
present humor. One hour he will be indulgent, 
and the next severe : at one time he will allow his 
child to do things which at another he would forbid. 
The child also will find out that he can carry points 
by management ; — by making his request when the 
parent is in a yielding humor, or by bringing him 
into such a humour by coaxing and wheedling, or 
by overcoming his objections by importunity. In- 
consistency must be the consequence : and an in- 
consistency the more to be deplored, because it will 
be connected with a failure in respect for the parent 
who is the author of it, and with the practice of 
cunning and art in the child, — habits of mind most 
adverse to all that is good. 

The very high importance of consistency must be 
apparent to all. Will children be likely to value 
good principles as they ought, when their parents do 
not steadily act upon them, and enforce them ? Will 
good habits be rooted and fixed in the child when he 
is allowed at times to indulge in the opposite bad 
ones ? Will he be led to see the beauty of holiness 
of heart, and of holy conduct, when he is allowed 
at times to taste the sweets of sin (for every fault is 
a sin) from which he ought to be weaned, and when 
he finds his own self-indulgence sanctioned by the 
self-indulgence of his parent ? " The ways of Re- 
ligion are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths 
are peace ;" but to those only who steadily walk in 
them. They have no charms for those whose con- 
duct is marked by frequent or gross inconsistencies. 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 63 

7. Spend much time with your children : encou- 
rage them to be free before you ; and carefully stu- 
dy their characters. 

For what is education ? It is co-operating with 
the Divine Spirit in forming the mind and changing 
the heart of an immortal being, whose nature is ex- 
tremely complex, by no means easily understood, 
and differing greatly in different individuals ; in all, 
however, weak and corrupt, and averse to the 
change to be wrought in it. Is it possible to doubt, 
that what is above recommended must be necessary 
in this work ? Can too great pains be taken where 
so much is at stake ? Can success be rationally ex- 
pected, unless great pains are taken, and your la- 
bors are enlightened and judicious ? And can you 
natter yourself that you take due pains, or that 
your labors will have a proper direction, if you give 
little time to your arduous task, and do not employ 
proper means for becoming well acquainted with 
the characters of your children ? 

It is wonderful that a parent can hope to be an ef- 
fectual instrument under Divine Grace, in leading 
his children from darkness to light, and from the 
power of Satan unto God, by proceeding in the way 
in which religious education is often conducted. Is 
it not generally true, that even in religious families, 
more thought, and care, and time are employed in 
teaching children to read, than in teaching and per- 
suading them, by God's help, to be real Christians ? 
The father sees but little of those who are young, 
and much less than is desirable of such as are older. 

The first he considers as scarcely at all under his 



64 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

care ; and though he probably gives some instructions 
to the latter, they are commonly such as are more 
calculated to enlarge their knowledge, and improve 
their understandings, than to regulate their disposi- 
tions, and make them new creatures. His avocations 
often are such as to make it impossible for him 
to be a great deal with his children ; but he gene- 
rally might be much more with them than he is ; and 
when with them, might employ the time much more 
usefully for the promotion of their best interests than 
he does. It often happens that they are under a de- 
gree of restraint in his presence, which, added to the 
little time he spends with them, prevents his obtain- 
ing a deep insight into their characters ; and, there- 
fore, either many evils escape his notice, or he a- 
dopts some wrong mode of correcting them ; and 
many a tender germ of good passes unobserved, and 
withers for want of his fostering care. — The mother 
is much more with her children, but generally, I 
think, not so much as she ought to be. This is the 
more to be lamented, because women are admirably 
fitted for training their offspring in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord. They have a remarkable 
quick insight into character : and a warmth of af- 
fection, a tenderness and a delicacy, which win the 
affection of others, and enable them to correct faults 
without giving offence, and to present Christian 
principles and virtues to their children in their most 
amiable form. I believe that there has seldom been a 
man who had a good and amiable mother, that has 
not in after-life looked back on her instructions and 
example with reverence and delight. Cowper's ad- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 



65 



niirable little poem on viewing his mother's picture, 
touches the hearts of all of us, because it describes 
scenes and feelings dear to every virtuous mind; 
scenes and feelings of which many of us have par- 
taken, and all wish to partake. 

Every hour which a Christian mother spends with 
her children has balm on its wings. She contrives 
to make even their pastimes a moral lesson ; and 
though she cannot (and it is not desirable that she 
should) make their regular lessons a pastime, yet 
she adapts them well to the abilities of her scholars, 
accommodates them well to times and circumstan- 
ces, and divests them of whatever is oppressive and 
revolting. To mix the pleasant with the useful, is 
at least as important in education as in poetry ; but 
good mothers far exceed good poets in that art. 
Surely, then, a mother should be jealous of every 
tiling which keeps her from the bosom of her family ; 
— a sphere in which she is so gifted to shine, and to 
be a blessing to those most dear to her. How sad 
it is, when she throws away this pure gold for mere 
dross, by giving up those hours to an excess of visit- 
ing and company, or even of reading, which ought 
to be spent among her children,! And how sad, too, 
when such high powers to train her young charge 
for Christ and glory are nof\under the guidance of 
an enlightened judgement, or receive a wrong di- 
rection ! I have been grieved to see maternal sensi- 
bility much more alive to the bodily than to the 
spiritual health of the objects of its solicitude : elec- 
trified when there was an idea that a child had re- 
ceived some slight hurt, but little moved while it 

g 2 



66 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

was contesting a point with a nurse, or teasing a 
brother. And I have been much more grieved, when 
I have seen it fall into partiality and favouritism ; or 
exhaust itself in anxieties about the persons of the 
girls, to the comparative neglect of their understand- 
ings, and to the great injury of their feelings and 
dispositions ; or employ itself in heaping on them ac- 
complishments, instead of leading them on in useful 
attainments and Christian habits ; or yielding to the 
influence of humour or caprice ; or (worse than all) 
giving itself over to a blindness to the faults of the 
objects of its love, and ruining them by indulgence 
and commendation. 

The only plausible excuse which parents, possess- 
ing health and sufficient time, can make for not em- 
ploying themselves actively in the education of their 
children is, that they put them into hands more fit 
for that task. This may be a good reason for send- 
ing boys, after a certain age, to school, or to a tutor ; 
though still, even in their case, much remains to be 
done by parents. Waving, however the consider- 
ation of this part of the subject, the excuse which 
has been mentioned does not appear to be admissi- 
ble, under any common circumstances, in the case 
of girls and of younger boys. Of these, the parents 
are certainly the natural guides and intructors. By 
long knowledge of their offspring, by their just title 
to respect as parents, and by affections and sympa- 
thies on both sides, they are fitted for this task far 
better than strangers can be. And if they suffer 
these great instruments of good to be lost, or per- 
verted to evil ; or if they fail to qualify themselves 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. £7 

for their task by obtaining other requisites, and by 
allotting to it sufficient time and thought, and taking 
due care and pains ; they must be answerable to 
God. They may, with much propriety, call in as- 
sistance, especially in the mechanical parts of edu- 
cation ; but should always consider themselves as 
keeping the higher branches, which respect the prin- 
ciples, dispositions, and habits, chiefly in their own 
hands. Can they entrust these to nurse-maids? 
They must certainly answer, No ! Or to govern- 
esses? These, in general, are but ill qualified to 
undertake this most important part of education. 
Besides, being extremely inferior to the parents in 
the points which have been mentioned, they are al- 
most always unprepared for the task. The boarding- 
schools, at which they are educated, afford them 
little instruction in this line, beyond what is necess- 
ary for ensuring the getting of lessons, and the 
maintenance of peace and subordination. 



68 A PRACTICAL VIEW 



CHAP. IV. 

The Period between a Child's beginning to read and 
going to School: — its Importance. — The Objects of 
Education, and their relative Value. — Commencement 
of Instruction in Reading. — Rosseau: — Education a 
Discipline. — CJwice of Books. — Tones and Articula- 
tion. — Care in the Use of Religious Books : — Selection 
of them. — Catechisms. 

During the period between a child's first beginning 
to read and the time of his going to school, the mind 
becomes capable of more continued and systematic 
instruction. Its powers expand and acquire a degree 
of firmness ; and a far more regular foundation may 
be laid for the opinions, dispositions, and habits 
which ought to predominate in mature age. That 
wondrous being, man, displaying so many marks of 
his high origin, as well as of his deplorable fall ; 
whose astonishing progress in knowledge, when his 
powers are cultivated, and whose more astonishing 
capabilities of knowledge, clearly point him out as 
destined to a more exalted state of being ; and whose 
no less astonishing progress in good or in evil, and 
further capabilities of both according to the course 
he takes, afford clear indications that that future 
state will be one of righteous retribution, eminently 
blessed or eminently wretched :— that wondrous 
being, at an early age, receives impressions which 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 69 

sink deep into his as yet soft and yielding nature, 
and acquires habits which take such firm hold of 
that nature as almost to become part of it. With 
what anxious care, then, should this spring-time of 
life be employed in preparations for the future har- 
vest ! If there be not a harvest of good, there must 
be one of evil. The heavenly sickle will most as- 
suredly, in due time, gather either the one or the 
other : and then with what unspeakable joy or grief 
will parents look back on their conduct towards 
their offspring during the years of early childhood ! 

There is a further consideration, which, in the case 
of boys, adds extremely to the importance of paren- 
tal exertions in education during the period in ques- 
tion. On its expiration, they usually leave their 
father's house, never afterwards, during the whole 
course of their education, to spend in it any very 
large portion of their time. And whither do they 
go ? To school, where they are surrounded by new 
companions, and find in abundance new sentiments, 
new habits, and new temptations. Their parents 
are no longer at hand ; and it is impossible for the 
master to afford them the protection which parents 
can afford against the inroads of folly and vice, es- 
pecially out of school hours. His time is too much 
occupied, and his family is too numerous to admit of 
close personal attention to his individual scholars, in 
their general manners and habits. If they enter this 
new world without decidedly good principles, and 
corresponding conduct of some continuance, what is 
to be expected ? Can it be rationally hoped that they 
will resist their own natural bias to evil, stimulated, 



70 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

as it will be, by bad example and false shame ? If 
the father sees, on his son's return home for the holi- 
days, a change which shocks him (though parental 
partiality will often make him in a great measure 
blind to that which is apparent to others), how is he 
to remedy the evil ? He will exert himself during 
the boy's continuance at home. But that is short ; 
and to be followed by a much longer period, during 
which his son will again be exposed to the same 
temptations which he was before too weak to resist ; 
—temptations now more formidable from not having 
been resisted. The parent will engage the master to 
counteract the evils he deplores: but the master, 
whatever may be his ability and good intentions, 
cannot perform impossibilities, nor, if the number of 
his pupils is not extremely small, give the time and 
attention to the case of this one boy which it would 
probably require. Supposing, however, his engage- 
ments to admit of his executing this task effectually, 
I confess I should be apprehensive that he will very 
rarely be found disposed to do so. His affection for 
the child cannot be expected to be that of a parent, 
and therefore he will generally be found deficient in 
the delicate and unceasing duties of an office which 
requires all the tender solicitude that flows from pa- 
rental affection. The father also writes frequently 
to his son. Letters, in such a case, are a very inade- 
quate substitute for ocular inspection and viva voce* 
admonition. Perhaps, however, he adopts what he 
deems the most efficacious measure, and sends his 

* Admonition by word of mouth. 






OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 71 

boy to another school. Is there not reason to fear 
that the new school will have its own peculiar dis- 
advantages ? But supposing it to introduce him to 
no new evils, is there any valid reason to hope that 
it will furnish a radical cure for the old mischiefs ? 
God's grace can do every thing ; and his mercy often 
effects more than we can ask or think ; but I cannot 
avoid looking upon the prospect of a parent, whose 
child has not taken to school with him a good foun- 
dation of religious principles and habits, and enters 
on bad courses there, as very gloomy and discoura- 
ging. 

Enough, I hope, has been said on the vast impor- 
tance of making the best use of that period in edu- 
cation which is now under review. How is this 
purpose to be effected ? Without presuming to give 
a full answer to that momentous inquiry, I will offer 
some practical observations on this subject. 

First, then, in taking a Christian view of the ob- 
jects of education, there can be no doubt that the 
first is to instil and cherish, in dependence on the 
Divine blessing, true religion, both in the soul and 
in the daily and hourly habits of life : and the second, 
to convey general knowledge and form the mind and 
the manners. These objects are in no small degree 
coincident each with the other. Nothing is so con- 
ducive to whatever things are lovely, of good report, 
virtuous, and praiseworthy in the various walks and 
stations of life, as a heart renewed by the Holy 
Spirit, and a demeanor corresponding with such a 
renewal. But, so far as they are distinct, the first 
has a decided pre-eminence. Happy is it when in 



72 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

practice it meets with the superior care, attention, 
and solicitude, which in theory is readily allowed to 
be its due! Partly from causes which have been 
pointed out, and partly from the example of that 
vast majority of mankind which has not true religion 
really at heart, even Christian parents are apt to 
slide into a system of education, if not directly op- 
posed to the foregoing principle, yet certainly one 
which, in the opinion of St. Peter or St. Paul, would 
be thought too nearly approaching to " the course 
of this world." Let it be strongly borne in mind, 
that if we do not set out with a just and distinct 
view of our objects in the management of our chil- 
dren ; and if we do not continually try our practice 
by our principles, and use vigorous and unceasing 
endeavors to keep it up to their standard, the stream 
will be poisoned at the very fountain, and we shall 
have cause to deplore the consequences. 

An attention to the relative importance of the 
objects in education, is necessary, even in the very 
first step to be taken by a parent in the period under 
consideration. He must determine at what age it 
will be best to begin to teach his child to read. Were 
he to make mere progress in reading his chief con- 
cern, I am by no means certain that he might not 
defer the commencement of his instructions a year 
or two longer than is desirable, if he considers the 
acquisition of good habits as of still greater import- 
ance, and to be greatly promoted by calling a child 
to the obedience, attention, patience, self-denial, and 
other good habits which he must practise, in ac- 
quiring the first rudiments of reading. However, 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 73 

the weakness and volatility of the little scholar, and 
the great repugnancy of our nature to exchange 
ease and play for restraint and toil, must be borne 
in mind. But little must be put upon him. For a 
time, attention must not be required for more than a 
very few minutes, and that not more than once or 
twice a day. But what is done, be it ever so little 
should be done with a regular aim at correctness. 
" A little and well," should be the teacher's motto. 
Above all, the utmost endeavors, consistent with 
sober and sound instruction, must be used to 
sweeten the labor, and not only to prevent bad 
tempers, but to foster every thing good and amiable. 
Times must be chosen for lessons, when no par- 
ticular cause exists for ill humor or impatience ; and 
whatever is likely to excite such tempers must be 
kept out of the way. If any thing unexpectedly 
occurs to make the child greatly wish for an earlier 
release than usual, it will be generally right to in- 
dulge him more or less, according to circumstances, 
in this point, if he has been tolerably good in his 
lesson : and even when he has not, and it is" impos- 
sible to speak of the favour as in any degree the 
fruit of his good conduct ; or if from any other 
cause, from bad temper, for instance, it is doubtful 
whether he is in a state to go on properly with his 
reading ; it will usually be best to stop the lesson. 
But for obvious reasons he must not, in the latter 
case, be treated with indulgence, but made to feel 
that he has been an offender by some litte res- 
traint or privation, and above all, by a suitable con- 
versation on the subject. A delicacy of manage-* 

H 



74 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

ment is requisite on these occasions. They call not 
only for a due appreciation of their importance, 
but for sagacity, thought, lively and well-poised 
feelings, self-command, and active and sound prin- 
ciple in the parent. In most of these requisites, 
mothers far exceed fathers. Let this consideration, 
while it gives confidence and vigour to the exertions 
of the mother, also point out to her the 'extent 
of her criminality, if she fail to make a good use 
of a talent bestowed upon her for the benefit of her 
offspring ; and let it impress on the father the ne- 
cessity of using double diligence in qualifying him- 
self for the discharge of his parental duties, than, 
which none can be more clearly indispensable or 
more sacred. 

As the child becomes rather older, and a little 
habituated to his business, his lessons will natu- 
rally be increased both in length and in frequency. 
Less care will be requisite in choosing the time for 
them ; and after a while that care will cease, and 
the school hours will be stated and determinate : less 
weight will be given to obstacles in the way of pro- 
ceeding with a lesson : and in all points more regu- 
larity, more self-possession, more voluntary exertion, 
and longer and stricter attention will be expected 
from him.— I would, however, caution parents 
against looking for a rapid or uninterrupted change 
in these respects. They will so much wish for such a 
change, both for the sake of their scholar, and to 
lighten their own burthen as teachers, that they will 
be under a great temptation to expect it, and to be 
somewhat impatient and harsh when disappointed. 






OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. / D 

This state of mind in parents will be very preju- 
dicial to both parties ; and unless there be a timely 
consciousness of error, and a recurrence to a better 
course, the most disastrous consequences will follow. 
The bonds of affection will be loosened, the confi- 
dence of the child will be lost ; and he will be led 
to feel towards his parent as a severe master, in- 
stead of a wise and tender friend, armed indeed by 
the Almighty with extraordinary power, but al- 
ways unwilling to use it, and effecting his purposes, 
if possible, by the most mild and gentle means. In 
truth, it is highly unreasonable to expect little crea- 
tures to make a regular and rapid improvement in 
their reading. Such an improvement may now and 
then take place : but in general the change will be 
veiy gradual, and subject to great fluctuations. For 
a time, a child may make great progress, then sud- 
denly appear to make none at all, or even to retro- 
grade. Surely, this is very natural in a little being 
come into the world with a strong disposition to please 
itself, rather than to do its duty ; and ready to be 
impatient and fretful and self-willed, when thwarted 
in its wishes ; and with mental powers but just 
opening, and habits, if on the whole good, yet very 
new and imperfect, and affording no security 
against the sudden inroads of temptation. I have 
often seen parents so highly unreasonable as to 
treat evils of this kind as if they were quite extraor- 
dinary, or almost intolerable, and such as call for 
expressions of dissatisfaction, and a severity of treat- 
ment, not at all to be vindicated ; and the course they 
have pursued in addition to other bad consequence- 



76 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

has often tended to aggravate the very evil they 
so irrationally deplore, and treat in so unjudicious, 
not to say in so unchristian a manner. Undoubt- 
edly such faults are to be counteracted ; but by 
moderate measures, unaccompanied by anger or 
discontent in the parent, and not habitually harrass- 
ing to the child, or likely to make him hate reading, 
and dread the lesson-hour, and, worse than all, 
likely to alienate his affections from his natural pro- 
tector and guide. 

What has been said will show, that though a 
warm advocate for mildness, temperance, and for- 
bearance in education, I am no friend to Rousseau's 
plan, or those, built on the same foundation, which 
have been proposed by others. I shall not stop to 
speak of such plans at any length, because I do not 
believe they now receive much countenance among 
those who are likely to read these observations, and 
shall only say that they are founded on not merely 
an erroneous view of human nature, but on a view 
the very reverse of that given of it in the Scriptures ; 
and that in their operation they are calculated to set 
aside the Christian system, and to steel the mind 
against it. What can be more false and mischievous 
than to represent, and treat man as a creature dis- 
posed of himself to act rightly, and to cultivate every 
good disposition, if he be but preserved from being 
spoiled by priests and pedants, and be put in the 
way to see, by the established order of things in the 
world, that virtue will best promote his happiness ? 
Had this been agreeable to-truth, since man confes- 
sedly wishes to be happy, we should have seen virtue 






OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 7? 

clearly predominant among men, if not universal ; 
and vice merely an exception to the general state of 
things. It is true, that God, in his wisdom and 
mercy has so ordered things, that virtue does pro- 
mote happiness, and vice leads to misery, even in 
this world. At least, this is the strong tendency of 
things ; and it is very important to point out this 
truth to children, and to accustom them to feel it in 
the common occurrences of life. Doubtless, the 
writers under consideration have ingenious devices 
for effecting this object : devices, however, in which 
there is by far too much address and management 
to suit my taste. I should be very apprehensive, 
that placing a child in the midst of so artificial a 
system was a bad introduction to the sincerity and 
godly simplicity of the Gospel. But if this objection 
were unfounded ; if these devices were as innocent 
and useful as they are ingenious ; still as to adopt 
the system of such writers, as a whole, would be 
most ruinous, so to recommend their works without 
great circumspection to those around us, is, in my 
opinion, highly dangerous. I have thought some 
good people very unguarded on this point. Such a 
recommendation is, in fact, a recommendation of 
poison, for the sake of the virtues that, by a chemi- 
cal process, may be extracted from it. But in the 
cases to which I allude there has been no due cau- 
tion against the deleterous qualities of the poison, 
and no due consideration whether those to whom 
the recommendation was given had an) r competent 
skill in Christian chemistry. 

According to a just view of human nature, whe- 

H 2 



78 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

ther derived from religion, from observation, or from 
history, in education it cannot be left to the choice of 
the child, what he will learn, and when he will learn 
it. Education cannot by any means be reduced to 
a sort of play ; but it must be a discipline upheld by 
parental authority — mild indeed, and gentle in its 
exercise, and sweetened by affection, but still a dis- 
cipline — having for its object, in humble dependence 
on the Divine blessing, the conducting of an immor- 
tal creature, in the first stage of its existence, from 
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to 
God. Its great business must necessarily be the 
counteracting of the natural bent of the mind to 
evil, and the instilling and fostering, under the gui- 
dance and by the help of the Holy Spirit, of a new 
nature, the very reverse of that which we all bring 
into the world. — How can this be effected on the 
plan of Rosseau or his followers ? It is plainly im- 
possible ; and the attempt would only increase the 
evils which education should remedy, and fill the 
mind with fascinating but deadly errors which it 
would be very difficult afterwards to eradicate. 

The ends of education are to be attained partly 
by regular lessons, and partly by attention to the 
child out of school hours. 

With respect to lessons, I have already made some 
remarks, and now proceed to offer others. 

It is important that the lesson should be learnt in 
the presence of the teacher for some years after 
reading commences. A young child is too thought- 
less, and has too little self-command, to be left by 
himself, while he learns a lesson. His time will pro- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 



79 



bably be mispent, and the lesson will be neglected, 
and he will accustom himself to trifle over his book : 
and, what is more important, he will fall into a habit 
of omitting what he knows he ought to do, which 
will naturally be extended to other branches of duty ; 
and this failure will, in all probability, lead to 
another and a worse evil — namely, that of making 
disingenuous excuses, and even of telling direct lies, 
in order to avoid punishment. 

Another circumstance, nearly allied to the fore- 
going, deserves attention. A parent should be ready, 
if possible, to hear a child his lesson as soon as he 
offers to say it. It is not uncommon with teachers 
to make their scholars wait as long as suits their 
own convenience, and expect them to be getting 
their lessons better during this delay. Such expec- 
tation is not at all rational, and will almost always 
be disappointed. It is not easy to induce a child to 
attend to his lesson, even when he is convinced of 
the impossibility of saying it unless he gives his at- 
tention. But to expect continued attention from him 
to the study of a lesson in which he thinks himself 
already perfect ; to expect that he will bestow on the 
lesson time and labor which appear to him superflu- 
ous, and proceed in the same dull round of getting 
and getting what he thinks he can say already, this 
surely is absurd. Is it not also an offence against 
that law of love, which, while it demands an atten- 
tion to the feelings, and a condescension to the 
weaknesses of all mankind, lays us under a peculiar 
and more pressing obligation to consult the happi- 
ness of our children, and forbids us to expect to oc- 



80 A PRACTICAL VJEW 

eupy the place we ought in their affection and con- 
fidence, if he will not obey its dictates ? An unne- 
cessary delay in hearing lessons must tend not only 
to disgust the scholar, but to add to the labors of the 
teacher, who will generally find that a lesson which 
would have been said ten minutes before with good 
humor and alacrity, is now either not said at all, or 
said in an imperfect manner, and with weariness 
and dissatisfaction. Where there are several scho- 
lars, it will be difficult entirely to avoid this evil ; 
but by good management it may be brought within 
such narrow bounds as not to be formidable. When 
children become somewhat older, say eight or nine, 
they may bear waiting for a short time till a teacher 
is ready ; and, under proper guards against atten- 
dant evils, it may sometimes be even a useful disci- 
pline. 

Something will shortly be said as to religious 
books. With respect to others, there is ample choice 
of proper ones ; but there is a still greater number 
of such as are improper. Those ought to be selected 
which are not so easy as to require little, if any, 
mental exertion, nor so difficult as to be necessarily 
a burthen; which will be interesting to the child, 
but not frivolous or absurd, or bearing a resem- 
blance to novels ; which convey useful instruction, 
and which harmonize with good principles. 

Little children are apt to contract unnatural tones 
in reading, and also a low, indistinct, and muttering 
articulation. A teacher must guard against these 
evils. The latter is best prevented by placing the 
scholar first at a little distance, and by degrees at a 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 81 

greater, till he and his instructor, each having a book, 
are removed several yards asunder. As the bad ar- 
ticulation usually arises from their being close toge- 
ther, and poring over the same book, so it is pre- 
vented by changing that system. The only objection 
to the course I propose, is the interruption to other 
scholars who are getting lessons, by the loud voice 
of the one who is engaged with the teacher. In some 
cases this may be so great an evil as to make that 
course unadvisable ; in others, a little ingenuity in 
arrangement will be necessary to make it practica- 
ble ; and this will be cheerfully employed, if its bene- 
fits are properly appreciated. Of course, it cannot 
be adopted until the time is arrived when the teacher 
is no longer obliged to point to the letter or word to 
be read by the scholar. 

With respect to books of a strictly religious de- 
scription, some further remarks are necessary. In 
using such books, care should be taken to keep their 
great object constantly in view. It would be a dese- 
cration of the awful subject to use a book of this 
kind entirely, or even principally, for the purpose of 
teaching a child to read. Such a proceeding would 
be somewhat like employing a church for some com- 
mon worldly purpose. It is of high importance, that 
religion should always wear her holy garb, and that 
the youthful mind should never approach her but 
with the sentiments which she ought to inspire. 
Whatever tends to dissociate her from such senti- 
ments ; to habituate children to hear her truths, or 
use her language, without such sentiments ; does 
them an injury which it may be very difficult to re- 



82 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

pair. To speak of God, his word, or his will, with- 
out holy reverence, is, I conceive, repugnant to the 
spirit of the Third Commandment, and therefore a 
breach of it : and that reverence will not be retained, 
if books on such subjects are taken up when re- 
ligious improvement is not the leading object. 

If this be so, let parents beware of using such 
books merely as vehicles even of religious know- 
ledge. Religious knowledge, without religious dis- 
positions will not impress the mind with reverence. 
The head may be stored ; but when the heart re- 
mains cold, Divine Truth not only fails to produce 
the effect intended by it, but the mind is gradually 
hardened against right impressions at a future time. 
To hear solemn truths, without feeling them, grows 
into a habit. God forbid that any approach to so 
awful a state should be contemplated with indiffer- 
ence ! We all know how tremendous it is, as exhib- 
ited in the case of some loud but hollow professors 
of religion. We also may have seen or heard of 
instances of desperate obduracy in persons who have 
grown old in assisting in the outward services of re- 
ligion, without yielding to its power. How attentive, 
then, should parents be to the frame of their own 
minds, and how desirous of promoting a devout 
spirit in those of their children, when the reading or 
conversation is on religious subjects ! Let them en- 
deavor to make it a holy exercise to both parties. 
Let them endeavor to exclude a curious, or a ca- 
villing, or a controversial, no less than a formal 
spirit, in the little beings to whom they are opening 
the heavenly path. Let them be quite in earnest in 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 83 

making their lessons lessons of humility, reverence, 
modesty, devotedness to God, and trust in him, and 
love of him, as well as lessons of religious truth. 
Then, with the Divine blessing, will a beautiful 
harmony exist between the head and the heart. Then 
will parents have the highest gratification which 
they can enjoy as parents ; that of seeing their 
charge make sensible progress towards perfect men 
and women in Christ, and grow in favor both with 
God and man. 

But among the books to which these remarks may 
apply, the holy Scriptures are beyond comparison 
pre-eminent. They never should be approached but 
with deep reverence for the Divine Author, and a 
deep sense of their inestimable value. When em- 
ployed in reading them, the parent should set an 
example sometimes of short aspirations to God, 
(short, simple, and modest, but from the heart,) for 
his blessing, and always of a devout spirit ; and the 
very book should be used and preserved with more 
than ordinary care. Somewhat of the temper of 
mind inculcated on Moses, " Put off thy shoes 
from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest 
is holy ground," should be sought and cherished on 
such occasions. In order the better to instil and pre- 
serve a proper reverence for the Bible, I would re- 
commend the not beginning to read either the Old or 
the New Testament with children before their general 
respect for religion, and their progress in self-com- 
mand, afford reasonable security that they will con- 
duct themselves rightly while so engaged. They 
should also have attained some facility in reading, 



84 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

that the difficulties they find in a sentence may not 
so far occupy their attention as not to leave it suffi- 
ciently disengaged for the attaining of the spiritual 
advantages which ought to be the great object in 
view. When they do begin to read the Scriptures, 
let those parts be carefully selected which they can 
best understand, and which are most likely to interest 
them ; and let the readings always be short, and be 
held out rather as a favor than as a task, and always 
as a religious duty. 

Perhaps there is no religious book with which it is 
better to begin than Watts's Hymns for Children. 
They are very simple and attractive, and contain 
(if I may so say) a body of sound nursery divinity ; 
and this is presented in such a dress as to gratify the 
imagination, and affect the heart while it informs the 
understanding. Some of these hymns may with 
great advantage be gradually taught to children 
from the mouth of the parent before they can be 
read. This work may commence even before a child 
knows his letters. It cannot, however, be conducted 
too tenderly, and scarcely too gradually. Very great 
care should be taken not to disgust the little one 
with that occupation. He should never have religion 
brought before him but with a smiling though a se- 
rious aspect; — such an aspect as may invite to a 
further acquaintance. These hymns should be care- 
fully explained, as they are learned, and in a tone, 
and with little illustrations, and with gentle but lively 
applications to the experience and conscience of the 
scholar, all congenial with the spirit of Watts's 
poetry : and they should continue a standing book 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION". 85 

until all of them have been learned and repeated 
(and never without appropriate observations from 
the parent) two or three times over. 

Some short and easy Bible History (as Mrs. Trim- 
mer's) is very useful as soon as the child can read 
with tolerable ease. It will convey some general 
idea of the longer narratives ; and while it will fur- 
nish useful lessons at the time, and give the parent a 
wider range in his illustrations, and in his appeals 
to the conduct of others either in the way of example 
or of warning in his incidental conversations with 
the child, it will prepare the way for reading the 
Bible itself at a rather later period with more advan- 
tage. The different parts of a long historical narra- 
tion, interrupted often by digressions in the Sacred 
Volume, will thus be more easily kept in the memory 
so as to form a whole in the child's mind as he pro- 
ceeds. There is another history of the Bible of a 
higher class, which has great merit, and will be 
found extremely useful in its proper season. Its 
title is, " The History of the Bible in familiar Dia- 
logues, by a Lady," 4 vols. 12mo. printed for and sold 
by Gardiner, 19, Prince's Street, Cavendish Square. 
This is a work which combines solid instruction and 
sound views of religion with that share of dialogue, 
and that ease of manner and style, which are plea- 
sant to children. Parents are much indebted to the 
authoress. 

As to catechisms, it is best to begin with Watts's, 
which are far better calculated for very young chil- 
dren than the admirable one of the Church of Eng- 
land. They should be learnt, like his hymns, very 



$6 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

gradually, and with explanations and illustrations. 
His first is adapted to a child just beginning to put 
letters together ; and his second to one two to three 
years older. 

To the second will succeed our Church Catechism. 
It appears to me a sad mistake to make children say 
this by heart, without suitable explanations and re- 
marks from the teacher. When this course is fol- 
lowed (and it is too common) the child generally 
understands very imperfectly what he is repeating ; 
the repetition, it is to be feared, is accompanied 
by no devotional feelings or self-application; and 
as far as the child does attend to the sense of what 
he is saying, there is reason to apprehend that the 
evils will accrue which have been already noticed 
as flowing from religious truths passing through the 
mind without making religious impressions on the 
heart. To avoid such evils, and to derive from the 
catechism the good it was intended to convey, it is 
advisable, I think, to divide it into four or five parts : 
and to let one part be said every Sunday, (or oftener,) 
and made a ground work for considerable explana- 
tions and illustrations. Questions will be put to the 
children, to try how far they understand what they 
have been saying, and are acquainted with those 
parts of Scripture which have a close connexion 
with it. Their answers should be kindly elicited, 
and kindly treated. They will often be erroneous, 
and generally crude and imperfect ; but instead of 
being forward to find fault, the teacher should give 
what encouragement he properly can, and gently 
and often indirectly, correct errors and supply de- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATJ 

iiciencies by his amplification and illustration of an 
answer, and by his further questions on the subject. 
He should not only be willing to answer questions 
himself, but should rather invite them ; taking care, 
however, not to be materially drawn away from his 
object, or led into desultory conversation. The 
whole, on his part, should be marked by Christian 
seriousness, attempered by parental love and conde- 
scension. He should be 

Much impressed 
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, 
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds 
May feel it too : affectionate in look, 
And tender in address. 

But care must be taken that the conversation or 
lecture (whichever it may be called) shall not harrass 
or agitate, but wear a soft and smiling dress, and 
rather slide gently into the heart than seize and appal 
it. The new situations and circumstances which 
his children respectively have before them, with their 
attendant temptations, wants, advantages, and du- 
ties, will be borne in mind, and have considerable 
influence as to the turn lie will give to his discourse. 
They will suggest much information to be commu- 
nicated, much advice, many warnings, and much 
encouragement. 

The parent will also have an eye to the present 
faults and defects of the individuals of his little au- 
dience, and he will now and then openly speak of 
them ; but he will always execute this part of his 
duty with delicacy and tenderness, and qualify what 



88 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

he says by introducing, when he honestly can, some 
commendation of those whose faults he mentions, 
and always by laying a stress on the means of im- 
provement, and on the grounds of hope that such 
means will be employed. Such a mention of faults 
is useful : but it must be managed with some ad- 
dress, and with a careful attention to the disposition 
of the child ; or it may be revolting, and do mischief, 
especially, if other children are present. I have al- 
ways found these catechetical conversations pleasant 
to children, and highly beneficial. As the little circle 
becomes older and better informed on religious sub- 
jects, the illustration and application of the several 
heads will become more extensive, and the several 
divisions of the catechism as they are repeated in 
their turns, may be considered as each consisting of 
two parts, which may be alternately the subjects of 
comment. Thus, if the first parts are the special 
objects of attention in one course of these lectures, 
the second parts will be so in the next course ; and 
the same portion will recur for illustration only on 
every eighth or tenth Sunday, or five or six times in 
the year. This plan will afford a pleasing variety 
to older pupils and yet bring each part of the cate- 
chism sufficiently often under review. I usually 
continue these lectures with my children till they are 
fifteen or older. 

It may be proper here to introduce some re- 
marks on the importance, and on the best means, 
of fixing passages of Scripture in the memory of 
children. 

I fear it is too common to be satisfied with a less 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 39 

intimate acquaintance with the Word of God than 
becomes creatures to whom so inestimable a trea- 
sure is given. The Bible is at hand, and is often, 
perhaps is regularly, read. Its different parts are 
recognised as old acquaintance on each re-perusal ; 
and they are not passed over without care and at- 
tention. In this way a foundation is laid, with the 
Divine blessing, of sound religious knowledge, and 
of solid piety. Still, however, there is often but little 
readiness in producing from memory the very ex- 
pressions of Scripture. There is a wide departure 
from the spirit of the directions given to the Israel- 
ites : — " And these words, which I command thee this 
day, shall be in thine heart : and thou shalt teach 
them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt 
talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and 
when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest 
down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt 
bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall 
be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt 
write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy 
gates."* And yet on an ability to produce the very 
words of Scripture promptly and correctly, from the 
stores of memory, depends often our right and ready 
application of this our Divine Rule, both in directing 
our own course through life, and in giving useful 
advice to those about us. Have not we all felt the 
prodigious advantage of an apposite passage of 
Scripture striking the mind on occasions when temp- 
tation has pressed upon us, or when we have doubted 

* Deut. vi. 6—9. 

i -2 



90 



A PRACTICAL VIEW 



as to the course we ought to pursue? Nor is the 
advantage less, when we can support our advice to 
others by the very words of Holy Writ But the 
benefits resulting from this knowledge of Scripture 
are by no means confined to such occasions. They 
extend to the general frame of the soul, and to its 
growth in grace ; and, in this point of view, are far 
more important than in any other. What a rich 
treasury for a supply of holy thoughts, and for the 
cultivation of holy affections, with the Divine aid, 
does that man possess, whose mind is well stored 
with the Word of God ! To him " nunquam minus 
solus quam cum solus 55 * will be emphatically appli- 
cable. No lonely walk will be dull to him. Even 
sleepless hours on his bed will seldom pass unplea- 
santly, but will be marked by a heavenly calm, if 
not also by filial joy. How often, when thus em- 
ployed, will he find time slide swiftly away, and be 
surprised to find the morning break on him much 
sooner than he expected ! But these gratifications, 
though so pure and substantial, are of small value 
compared with the gradual transformation of soul 
which, through the Divine blessing, will accompany 
them. Perhaps nothing human promotes more pow- 
erfully a renewal in the Divine image, especially in 
persons of active pursuits, than a habit of gently 
dwelling, in hours of solitude and retirement, on 
such portions of the Divine Word as best suit ex- 
isting circumstances and the existing temper of the 
mind. 

* Never less alone, than when alone. 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION'. 91 

This exercise 

Luxurientia compescet, nimis aspera sano 
Levabit cultu, virtute carentia toilet.* 

All that is within will be purified, harmonized, 
cheered, and elevated ; and it is apparent how much 
a frequent recurrence of such an inward frame 
must tend to form a new creature. 

I may have an undue partiality for this mode of 
employing the thoughts in religion ; but I must say, 
I greatly prefer it to suffering them to roam at will, 
and pour themselves forth in extemporaneous effu- 
sions. When so let loose, they are apt to be more 
under the guidance of human passions, and are 
more likely to run into superstition or enthusiasm. 
At all events, it can scarcely be hoped that the pic- 
tures they present to the soul will be so innoxious, so 
pure, so dignified, and so edifying, as those which 
are found in the inspired records of the communi- 
cations of God to man. 

In order to enjoy the full benefit of this species 
of religious contemplation, our knowledge of scrip- 
ture must be extensive and accurate. It will not 
answer the purpose to be master of a few passages ; 
or to be acquainted with many, but only in a loose 
and imperfect way. The power of selection should 
be as extensive as the occasions which call for it, 
and the dispositions of the soul, are various ; and 

* Checks the luxuriant shoots of vice, and smooths, 
By culture sound, the roughness we retain 
From nature's quarry ; and the heart refines 
From all not virtuous. 



92 A PRACTICAI VIEW 

when a passage is selected, we ought to be able to 
make use of it without mistake or difficulty. 

Now, how will this knowledge of Scripture be 
best attained ? Beyond all doubt, by learning much 
by heart during the period of youth. I have heard 
a gentleman, very eminent for ability and for biblical 
knowledge, say, that he remembers no part of his 
Bible so well as verses which he got by heart when 
a boy, as proofs of the different positions in the 
Church Catechism. It is in youth that the memory 
is most retentive ; and the stores it then lays up 
are the least subject to loss or decay from the lapse 
of time. Like certain flowers gathered at a proper 
season for preservation, they retain, even to a late 
period, much of their original freshness ; while 
passages learnt in after-life are apt to fade, and 
escape altogether out of the mind, if not frequently 
reinstated by repetition. Besides, by beginning 
early, there is ample time for laying in a large 
store of the more important parts of Scripture ; and 
what is learnt will take deeper root, not only in the 
memory, but in the affections, and become more, 
if I may so say, a part of ourselves. The impres- 
sions thus received will, with God's blessing, 

" Grow with our growth, and strengthen with our strength," 

and contribute essentially to the formation, in due 
time, of the perfect man in Christ. 

In order to acquire this knowledge, let children 
learn a certain portion of Scripture every day, and 
say it to one of their parents. The number of 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 93 

verses appointed to be learnt, should not be such as 
to make this business burthensome. When the 
passage is repeated, it should not only be explained, 
(if necessary,) but pains should be taken to lead the 
young- person to enter into its spirit, and to be pro- 
perly affected by it. Without this, little is attained. 
It will soon be neglected and nearly forgotten, when 
the superintending care of the parent no longer 
keeps it in the memory by fresh repetitions. Such 
repetitions are very important parts of the system. 
They should take place at considerable intervals, 
say every six or nine months with the younger 
children, who are still, at other times, making daily 
additions to their stock of Scripture-passages ; and 
every year, or year and a half, with the elder ones, 
who are no longer making such additions systema- 
tically, though a passage which happens to strike 
them will now and then be added to those they had 
learnt before. Every repetition should be attended 
by affectionate and familiar conversations, calcu- 
lated to lead to such feelings and dispositions as the 
passages respectively ought to excite. If this is 
done with tenderness, and with due attention to the 
age, acquirements, and natural temperament of the 
children, and with a care to avoid whatever may 
make the employment irksome or harrassing, a 
parent will seldom find any of his children attend 
him on such occasions with reluctance, but will ge- 
nerally see in their countenances and manner marks 
of interest and satisfaction. 

It is possible, that the young and the diffident 
may sometimes fancy that they shall find some dif- 



94 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

iiculty in fixing on passages for their children to 
learn ; and this may be an obstacle in the way of 
adopting the course I have ventured to recommend. 
Let them make the attempt, and they will succeed 
sufficiently well. However, as they may think 
otherwise, I will put, in the Appendix, a collection 
of passages from the New Testament, which I have 
known to be used in a young family with good ef- 
fect. Great nicety is not requisite in a selection of 
this kind. 

Two cautions, however, may be necessary in 
making a selection. 

Avoid passages which have a very direct bearing 
on abstruse and much-controverted points. — Chil- 
dren ought not to be puzzled in religion. In this 
sense, as in others, spiritual milk, and not strong 
meat, is their proper food. The great aim should 
be to make, by Divine aid, their heavenly Father, 
and their Sanctifier, but, above all, their Saviour 
and his Gospel, the objects of their reverence and 
of their affections ; and this end will be greatly 
counteracted by fatiguing and bewildering their 
understanding. When difficulties occur to them- 
selves, or are so far connected with the subject before 
them that they cannot be entirely passed over, it 
appears to me best to avoid entering minutely into 
them, but to show, that from the infinite distance 
between God and man, difficulties, and insuperable 
difficulties, must necessarily be expected, when God 
vouchsafes, to his creatures any communication 
respecting his own nature, and his own govern- 
ment. Nor is it less important to avoid contro- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION £§ 

verted, than to avoid abstruse points : — indeed, those 
which are abstruse are generally controverted. Con- 
troversy subjects vital religion in adults to eminent 
danger, unless they are very advanced and eminent 
Christians, and even then it is not without its perils : 
and, in my opinion, it never ought to be undertaken, 
except in cases of necessity, or pushed beyond that 
necessity. But in the case of children, with such 
weak intellects, such shallow knowledge, such lively 
and ill-regulated imaginations and feelings, and, 
above all, with religious principles and habits so 
extremely frail and imperfect, it must humanly 
speaking, be fatal to all that is good. 

In general, do not select those addresses to God 
which are likely to be considered by the child as 
intended to be used by himself in lifting his thoughts 
to Heaven. However edifying these may be to 
persons more advanced in the Christian course, as 
expressing in the language of Inspiration their de- 
vout breathings of soul, they are unfit and unsafe 
for children. It cannot be supposed, that the lan- 
guage which suited the religious affections of David, 
will suit those of a child, who is just beginning that 
spiritual course, in which David had made so extra- 
ordinary a progress, as to be " a man after God's 
own heart." And, if David's language is unfit, it 
must be unsafe, for a child. Nothing is more im- 
portant in religion, than modesty, simplicity, and 
godly sincerity : and it is evident, that addresses to 
the Deity, or expressions of inward feelings, which 
go at all beyond what the actual state of our souls 
would naturally prompt, are not compatible with 



96 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

those estimable qualities. Nay, I confess, that even 
in adults, and much more in children, I am better 
pleased when the outward manifestations of devo- 
tion evidently fall somewhat short of the internal 
impressions. By proceeding in an opposite course, 
many, I believe, have been led to direct hypocrisy, 
and many more have become self-deceivers. Where 
there appears to be, if not a sort of contest who 
shall use the most fervent expressions, at least an 
endeavor, while engaged in religious exercises or 
conversation, to work up the feelings to a high 
pitch, and to express them in words to the full as 
warm and glowing, who does not see that we are 
in danger of endeavoring to appear to others, and 
in most eminent danger of appearing to ourselves, 
more spiritual and devout than we really are ? 
Look at the concise modesty of the address of the 
justified Publican, and at the beautiful simplicity 
of the Lord's Prayer ; and compare them with the 
exuberant, if not the extravagant, style too often 
met with in human devotional compositions, and 
still more in extemporaneous prayers. 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 97 



CHAP. V. 

Mechanical Reading : — how obviated — School- Lessons 
to promote Moral Qualities : — Obedience ; Regula- 
rity ; Attention ; Patience ; Alacrity. — Happy 
Fruits of these Qualities. — Failures to be expected. 
— How to be borne. 

It often happens that reading is made too mecha- 
nical. If the words are properly pronounced, and 
attention is paid to the stops, and the parts of the 
sentence are put together with tolerable propriety, 
the teacher rests satisfied, though the understanding 
of the scholar has been little employed. This is 
very generally the course with village school- 
masters, and many parents of good education too 
nearly approach it. Even the mere reading, were 
this alone the object, as it often is in a village 
school, can never be good when the mind does not 
thoroughly enter into the sense ; but that parents, 
whose views extend much farther, should ever ac- 
quiesce in their children's pronouncing sentences 
somewhat like parrots, and missing a large portion 
at least of the information and improvement which 
it was the intention of the author to convey, is 
really surprising. When this kind of reading is 
permitted, I believe it is owing in a good measure 
to their not being aware how imperfectly their little 
scholars understand what is so plain to themselves. 



98 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

The evil in question is of far greater importance 
than may at first appear. The child is led into a 
habit of reading without thinking, and of resting 
contented with a very confused notion of what is 
read. Scarcely any thing can be a greater obstacle 
to the acquisition of sound and useful knowledge, 
and of vigorous habits of investigation. If these are 
not acquired, the mind will generally become a prey 
to frivolity and intellectual idleness ; and it is well 
if it do not also resign itself to low pursuits, and 
sensual indulgence. As one antidote, through 
Divine grace, to these most unchristian and often 
fatal evils, let a child always be made, as soon as 
he can read a sentence, to understand what he 
reads, and to give an account of it afterwards. In 
order to effect the latter object, when his reading 
has been more than three or four lines, let him take 
his book and look it over, and give the account 
when he finds himself prepared. The parent must 
not expect this to be given without leading questions 
to draw it forth ; and he will think it an important 
office to make this part of the business pleasant to 
his scholar, by smoothing difficulties, making the 
best of imperfect answers, and interspersing the 
whole with suitable illustrations and moral re- 
marks, in a tone and manner favorable to the 
right feelings of his pupil, and likely to exclude 
wrong ones, or to administer a gentle cure to such 
as may be rising. So also, whatever is to be got by 
heart, should always be previously read, explained, 
illustrated, and (if I may so say) practically applied. 
But the parent ought always to bear in mind, that 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 90 

every lesson is as truly a lessen in the moral qua- 
lities to be acquired and strengthened by its being 
properly learnt, and properly said, as it is in the 
branch of knowledge to which it relates. Those 
qualities are of a very high order, and the cha- 
racter in future life depends extremely on the pro- 
gress made in their acquisition during early youth. I 
will particularize five of them : obedience, regularity, 
attention, patience, and alacrity. These ought to be 
in exercise during every lesson ; and a proper re- 
gard to them in the pupil during school-hours, will 
do much, under the Divine blessing, towards 
making them habitual. 

1. Obedience. — I well remember being much im- 
pressed by a sermon about twenty years ago, 
when I was a young father, in which the preacher 
said, that were he to select one word as the most 
important in education, it should be the word " obey.'* 
My experience since has fully convinced me of the 
justice of the remark. Without filial obedience, 
eveiy thing must go wrong : with it, if the parent 
has right views of his duty, and is consistent in his 
practice, notwithstanding present appearances may 
be very unpromising, every thing may not impro- 
bably become right. Is not a disobedient child 
guilty of a manifest and habitual breach of the 
Fifth Commandment ? And is it not a parent, who 
suffers this disobedience to continue when he knows 
he is armed with sufficient power to overcome it. 
an habitual partaker in his child's offence against 
that commandment ? How can those who are thus 
criminal hope for God"> blessing on any part of 



100 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

their conduct ? and, without that blessing, what can 
they expect but a progress from bad to worse ? 
Besides, without obedience, there will be no respect 
for the parent ; but he will be the object of disregard, 
and even of a portion of contempt. He will be 
treated slightingly ; his opinion will be criticised ; 
his judgement will be questioned ; and the very en- 
ceavors he uses to lead his son to better sentiments 
will probably produce more harm than good. Is 
it surprising, that under the Divine government, 
the enforcing of obedience should be so essential a 
duty of parents, when the whole tenor of Scripture 
shows us, that obedience is the very groundwork of 
Chistianity ? The natural propensity of man to 
shake off the yoke of legitimate authority, is the 
disposition most adverse to God and his service. 
By the disobedience of our first parents, sin came 
into the world ; and through the obedience of the 
Second Adam, are the gates of heaven opened to 
true believers. The wicked are emphatically styled, 
" the children of disobedience :" and it is clearly 
the primary object of the Divine plan of salvation 
to conquer the rebellious spirit of man and to bring 
him into a state of humility and submission. Pa- 
rental authority is one powerful instrument for ef- 
fecting this change. It is intended to bend the stub- 
born will, to repress froward humors, and by habitu- 
ating a child to subjection to earthly parents, to 
prepare him for Christian obedience to his heavenly 
Father. In proportion as filial obedience is cal- 
culated to smooth the way for true religion, filial 
disobedience must produce the opposite effect. The 



[AH EDUCATION. 101 

parent who habitually gives way to it, has appalling 
reason to apprehend that he is educating his child 
not for heaven, but for hell. His labors for its 
good may be many and great ; but what produce 
can he expect from such a soil ? The heart, poisoned 
by pride and selfishness, will be removed very far 
indeed from that " honest . and good heart " in 
which the seed produces " thirty, sixty, a hundred 
fold." I have been induced to dwell the longer on 
this subject, from having observed many good peo- 
ple fail to require regularly and steadily prompt 
obedience from their children. This failure pro- 
ceeds, I think, principally from that affection, and 
that sauvity of manners, which are the genuine 
fruits of Christianity : but partly from a perversion 
of the Christian tenet, that " God alone is the Author 
of all good," inducing, or rather tempting, them to 
leave to Him, with too little effort on their part, as his 
instruments, the cure of those evils against which 
they find it most irksome to contend. Let them, 
however, recollect that Jesus Christ, our model, 
united the most determined and invincible resolu- 
tion with more than human love ; and personal ex- 
ertions, almost too great for his mortal frame, with 
perfect reliance on the Divine Power. 

2. Regularity. — Whoever has observed its high im- 
portance in human concerns, and the natural pro- 
pensity of man to be changeful and desultory, will 
enforce its observance in his system of education. 
Man is formed to attain to far higher powers than 
those with which he is naturally endowed, and t-> 
reach far higher objects than those which appeal to 

k 2 



10-2 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

be within his grasp. But these can only be obtained 
by continued and progressive efforts, which carry 
him on from step to step, till, from a state little 
differing from that of the brutes, he arrives at one 
which exhibits strong marks of his divine original, 
and no slight prognostics of a high destination. In 
such a course, regularity is absolutely necessary. 
Without it, the greatest human exertions will be 
productive of comparatively little good ; and how- 
ever they may sometimes astonish the beholders, 
they w r ill rather resemble the extraordinary leaps 
of a wild animal, than the steady pace of the do- 
mesticated horse, which carries the rider to the 
end of a long journey. And yet how unwilling is 
man to submit to the rules and restraints indis- 
pensable to success in his best pursuits ! He is 
fond of novelty ; fond of ease ; and loves, if active, 
rather to riot in the wanton and capricious exer- 
cise of his powers ; and, if of a quiet disposition, 
rather to waste them in sloth, than to make a steady 
and well-directed use of them and reap the rich 
fruit of their legitimate exertion. To counteract 
this propensity, and give the habits a right direc- 
tion, must be one of the objects of education. But 
this work must be carried on with moderation, 
and, for a few of the first years of the period un- 
der review, the parent must be content to let re- 
gularity be interrupted by a variety of little cir- 
cumstances already noticed, when its observance 
would be particularly trying to the child ; but it 
ought to be his endeavor to shorten this period 
as much as he properly can, and at length to re- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 



103 



duce his system to strict order and method. The 
hours of business must be regular, and the lessons 
regular : regularly got, and regularly said. This re- 
gularity will be found not more favorable to the 
acquiring of knowledge, than to the subduing of 
selfishness, and the wayward humors which attend 
it, and to the growth of self-command and self- 
denial, and to the practical elevation of a sense of 
duty above all the allurements of external objects 
or vagrant fancies. 

3. Attention, — It consists in a steady employment 
of the mind on the business immediately before it. 
It is surprising in how great a degree the ability 
of thus chaining down thought to any prescribed 
object is given by a right education, and of what 
high importance it is, not only in many of the 
walks of science, but in the common affairs of 
life. I once was for several weeks with a foreigner 
of very fair natural abilities, but never subjected to 
the discipline of early study, who would often 
.arrive at right conclusions by a kind of jump, of 
which he could give but little explanation, but 
was incapable of fixing his mind on a train of 
reasoning so as to see the dependence of the se- 
veral parts, each on the other. He took consider- 
able pains to obtain a little mathematical know- 
ledge ; but his thoughts were so quick in their 
movements, and so intractable, that I question 
whether he could be said fully to understand any 
one proposition in Euclid. In giving an account 
of any piece of history which he had been reading, 
instead of telling you with some regularity what 



104 \ PRACTICAL vieh 

he had found in his author, he drew you a picture 
of his own. lively, and often to the purpose, but 
produced by illustrations and analogies, and a sort of 
theatrical exhibition, and not by a narration of con- 
secutive facts. Through the general diffusion of 
regular education in this country among those 
with whom we associate, I suspect that we are 
apt to look on this intractability of thought as a 
mental disease in a greater degree than we ought : 
and that, among savage nations, it is by no 
means uncommon, or rather it is perhaps the or- 
dinary state of the human mind, Whether this 
opinion be well-founded or not, we shall all agree 
in deprecating such a state of intellect among 
our children, and be anxious to prevent it. Let, 
then, parents make a point of using their chil- 
dren, and especially their daughters, whose natural 
volatility most needs this discipline, not only to 
give their attention to the business in which they 
are engaged, but to listen, very early to a little 
reasoning, (at first a very little,) and give a short ac- 
count of the argument they have heard ; the 
parent taking care that the steps shall follow each 
other in their right order, and that none of them shall 
be omitted. By degrees the arguments may become 
longer. A skilful teacher will select a subject in- 
teresting to the pupil, who will consider what passes 
as conversation, and not as (what in truth it is) a 
lesson in which the dulce * is most visible, and the 
utile If rather concealed. A habit of occasionally 
passing a quarter of an hour in this way, and of 
proceeding on a similar plan, when the children 
* Pleasant, + Useful. 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 105 

give an account of what they have been reading, 
and are asked for opinions respecting it, will do much 
towards making them reason methodically, which 
is a great point gained towards reasoning justly, 
and therefore towards acting rational!} 7 ", as they 
pass through life. We often meet with a person 
who declares the he (or more frequently, I am 
afraid, she) cannot understand an argument used 
in conversation, though plain in itself And why ? 
Scrutinize a little, and you will generally find the 
true cause to be an indisposition to apply the 
mind with regular attention to it ; an indisposi- 
tion, in fact, to bear a burthen which has not been 
rendered light by the introduction of proper habits 
in early years. 

It is almost superfluous to add, that habits of at- 
tention, besides laying a foundation for usefulness 
in future life, contribute essentially to the comfort of 
the school-room, and to the moral improvement of 
the scholars. They not only extremely facilitate the 
acquisition of knowledge, but do much towards 
making study pleasant, by making it vigorous and 
productive : they thus draw forth the faculties, pre- 
vent the taedium which is apt to prey on children in 
their school-hours, when their minds are not fully 
employed ; promote self-government ; and do away 
the temptation to those false excuses and pretences, 
of which idleness seldom fails continually to avail 
itself. 

4. Patience. — Scarcely any disposition is more 
wanted in life than this, and education affords ample 
means of instilling and fostering it. Man is not only 



106 A PRACTICAL YUW 

called to endure many natural evils, and many evils 
brought upon him by his fellow-creatures: but in 
his Christian warfare with his own innate depravity, 
he must continually mortify his strongest inclina- 
tions and restrain his fondest wishes. " He that will 
come after me, must deny himself, and take up his 
cross and follow me." " If ye live after the flesh," 
(that is, according to your own natural desires,) 
" ye shall die : but if ye, through the Spirit, do mor- 
tify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Eternal 
life is promised to those who seek for it "by patient 
continuance in well doing." And we are told, that 
if we would be " perfect and entire, wanting no- 
thing," we must let "Patience have her perfect 
work." Such was " the good fight of faith" required 
by our Saviour and his Apostles, and such must it be 
to the end of time. In this case, as in every other, 
God makes no demand with which he does not ena- 
ble man to comply. Not only the Holy Spirit is 
ready to aid him, but under the Divine government 
he is placed in circumstances calculated to prepare 
him for obedience to the Divine will. Among 
these circumstances, education is intended by the 
Almighty to hold a distinguished place. And the 
better to render education a powerful instrument for 
the attainment of this end, God has bound parents, 
not only by duty, but also by a strong and present 
interest, operating daity and almost hourly, to incul- 
cate patience. An impatient child, if not the plague 
of the house, can scarcely fail to be the plague of 
himself and of his instructor. How happens it. 
then, that this fault is so frequently suffered to pre- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 107 

vail among children ? Because the parent is often 
impatient himself; and this fault will completely 
frustrate all his efforts to conquer impatience in his 
child. He is also often self-indulgent; and his in- 
terest, however great and apparent, will not induce 
him to take the trouble requisite to subdue a fault, 
which incessantly re-appears, and calls for his unre- 
mitting attention. Perhaps, too, he persuades him- 
self that wayward fits and cross humors must be 
tolerated in children, but that they will give way to 
good sense and maturer principles at a future 
period. 

Vain reason all, and false philosophy ! 

Such a plea will not stand a moment before the 
maxim of the wise King of Israel : " Train up a 
child in the way he should go." From whatever 
cause the failure of a parent in promoting and en- 
forcing patience in his young charge may arise, let 
him count the cost. Let him recollect the speedy 
flight of time, and view the precious months and 
years of childhood, when his parental power is in 
full vigor, and the youthful mind pliable and docile, 
sliding swiftly away never to return. Does he think 
habits of impatience will not strengthen by indul- 
gence ? Or that he shall find it more easy to make 
a salutary and deep impression on the mind of the 
academician, aspiring to all the privileges of man- 
hood ; or of the sturdy school-boy, who, during three 
parts of the year, is out of his sight ; than on that 
of a playful child, always with him, and conscious 



108 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

of entire dependence upon him ? But his reliance 
is on the boy's future good sense and good princi- 
ples. Miserable reliance ! — and indulged at the ex- 
pense of parental duty. Good sense and good prin- 
ciples may, in after life, effect, by God's blessing, a 
change of temper. But with what reason can a 
parent trust to a future change, while at present he 
suffers a child's judgment to be clouded by passion, 
and his practice to be at variance with good princi- 
ples ? And how, without a very offensive presump- 
tion, can he hope that God will in some other way 
confer an advantage on his child, which he himself 
has not endeavored to obtain for him by the appointed 
means of a good education ? 

5. Alacrity. — A lesson may be got and said with 
obedience, regularity, attention, patience, and yet in 
the sight of God be got and said very ill. God 
"loveth a cheerful giver:" and not less a cheerful 
scholar. He requires that the heart shall do him 
homage, and willingly join in the performance of all 
our duties : and he accepts of nothing as true service 
done to him, which is done "grudgingly, and of ne- 
cessity." Hence the supreme importance of leading 
children, on Christian grounds, to go through their 
school-business with alacrity. How much this will 
also smooth the path of the teacher, and by drawing 
forth energy, and giving life to ingenuity, promote 
the progress and conduce to the happiness of the 
scholar, is apparent. So true is it, in this as in every 
thing, that "godliness has the promise of the life 
that now is, as well as of that which is to come." 
The disposition which we are considering crowns all 






OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 109 

those which have been mentioned, at the same time 
that it is dependent upon them. The queen of 
school-room graces will shun the spot where harsh 
and violent means are employed to secure them. 
The discipline by which they are enforced must be 
mild, rational, and enlightened ; and all the honest 
arts the parent can devise, must be employed to 
ward off temptations to evil, to lighten them when 
unavoidable, and to smooth the path of right con- 
duct. 

And now, let parents form to themselves an idea 
of a young family, in the main obedient, regular, 
attentive, patient, and cheerful in their school-hours, 
and contrast it with another of opposite habits and 
dispositions, and let them say whether the qualifica- 
tions which have been mentioned will not amply re- 
pay any pains which can be taken to promote them, 
even if the present comfort and reputation of them- 
selves and of their children were alone considered. 
Let them say, whether, even in this limited view, 
such fruits are not to be classed with the most valua- 
ble a school-room can produce. But, when they 
further consider, that several of them are strictly of 
celestial origin, and prepare those who possess them 
for eternal bliss ; how unspeakably will they value 
them, how unwearied will they be in their culti- 
vation ! 

I am almost afraid, lest the foregoing view of the 
happy effects of a proper education, under the bles- 
sing of God should lead parents to expect too much 
from their labors, and to be disheartened when they 
experience important failures. They will assuredly 

L 



110- A PRACTICAL VIEW 

meet with much forgetfulness in their children, many 
instances of negligence, with some capricious fan- 
cies, and some cross humors ; and, perhaps, in their 
young family, they may meet with individuals on 
whom it may be exceedingly difficult to engraft one 
or other of the five qualities which have been men- 
tioned. But lei them not be discouraged. A deep 
sense of then- own frailty and propensity to evil, not- 
withstanding all the grace of God may have done 
for them ; and a recollection that these same quali- 
ties, less corrected perhaps by Divine grace, are in- 
herent in their children ; should lead them to expect 
great obstacles, and rather to wonder at their suc- 
cess, than at their failures. In fact, how could they 
succeed in any one instance, but for the divine aid ? 
How patiently then, and with what sweetness of 
temper, should they bear with difficulties and hin- 
drances among their children, praying, and waiting 
quietly and serenely for the blessing of God, while 
they steadily and unweariedly continue to employ the 
means which, on full consideration, appear to them to 
be the best in their power ! It is surprising how such 
conduct succeeds in the end : children altering un- 
accountably for the better, and a bright dawn open- 
ing on a parent when he thinks that a long and dark 
night is before him. Under discouraging circum- 
stances, it is of the highest importance that he should 
possess his soul in patience, and not suffer his affec- 
tion to be alienated from his child. If he fails in 
these respects, his ability to conduct him into the 
right path will assuredly be weakened— perhaps en- 
tirely lost. He will naturally apply himself with 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. Ill 

most care to rectify what he deems most faulty. But 
he ought to bear it in mind, that in these points the 
child will find a change most difficult. It is here, 
therefore, that the parent must not look for more than 
a very gradual improvement, interrupted probably 
by relapses and retrogressions, and must be particu- 
larly on his guard against haste and violence. In 
his other children, or perhaps in some parts of the 
character of the very child who causes him great 
uneasiness, he may find much to cheer him. Such 
cordials, (if I may be allowed the term,) he may 
freely use, returning thanks for them to the Giver of 
all good : but let him never forget, that they must 
not lead him to lose sight of the evil existing in his 
family, or relax in his endeavors to remove it, 



112 A PRACTICAL VIP U 



CHAP. VI. 

Means for the Support of Parental Authority and Influ- 
ence. — Rewards and Punishments. 

Having mentioned the objects to be kept in view in 
education, it may now be proper to say something 
on the means which it is the duty of a parent to 
employ to make his authority respected, and to in- 
fluence the minds of his children. 

Of these means, rewards and punishments first 
demand our attention. Various theoretic discus- 
sions have taken place respecting the propriety of 
employing them in education. I shall neither ex- 
amine nor produce any theories on this subject, but 
found what I advance on the Divine example and 
the Divine command, which, I apprehend, will be 
far safer guides than any theory; and guides far 
better suited to those persons who have the manage- 
ment of children — persons generally much better 
qualified to follow a plain rule than a philosophical 
speculation. In the government of this our world, 
God manifestly employs rewards and punishments. 
They are held out to influence his creatures, and 
lead them to the performance of their duty and to 
their true happiness. The punishments are used re- 
luctantly, and for the purpose of humbling the mind, 
and leading it to give up forbidden objects and fly to 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 113 

its God. The rewards are most freely offered to 
those who will receive them with a right disposition 
of heart, manifested by right conduct towards the 
the gracious Donor; and are intended to promote 
and cherish, as w _ ell as to bless, such a disposition. 
They produce their effect partly by a sense of 
their value ; but more, by exciting, in the bosoms 
of those on whom they are bestowed, a gratitude 
for the boon and a love for the Giver. These dis- 
positions will be proportionate to their conviction 
of their own demerit, and of the Divine goodness ; 
and when they have taken root in the heart, they 
become the most powerful motives to all Christian 
virtue : they constrain the man, as it were, to 
live unto his God, and be a new creature in his 
service. I should trespass improperly on your in- 
dulgence, were I to quote passages to prove 
points which are clear from the general tenor of 
Scripture, and will be at once admitted.* 

The parent in training his child to Christian 
virtue, will do well to study diligently the Di- 
vine plan for promoting the same great object 
among men, and to follow it as closely as the 
nature of the case will admit. He will find the 
precepts on education in the Sacred Volume, to 
teach his offspring — to guide them — to exact obe- 
dience from them — to command them— -to correct 
them — but yet to " forbear threatening," and not 
discourage them, best illustrated by that plan, with 
which they are evidently in harmony. 

* 2 Cor. v. 14. See also, Eph. i. 3 ; 1 Tim. ii. 13, 17 ; 1 John 
i-v. 18, 19 ; Rev. i. 5, 6.— vi. 6, 12, 13. 

L 2 



114 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

How, then, should punishment be employed ? 
Always reluctantly, and as sparingly as circum- 
stances will allow, and in such a manner, and 
with such accompaniments, that while it deters from 
sin, it may bring the mind into a state to be duly 
influenced by other and better motives. 

And how should rewards be employed? With 
pleasure, and far more freely, as incentives to good ; 
but still with a guard against their giving rise to 
habits of self-indulgence or prodigality ; and with a 
constant recollection, that their highest use is to 
lead to the performance of duty from the more 
elevated motives of gratitude and affection. — It will 
be necessary to consider the heads of this general 
outline more particularly. 

Punishments should be employed reluctantly. Will 
any one dispute this position ? And yet how often 
are they inflicted in such a way, that there is not 
only no reluctance apparent, but they appear to 
afford positive gratification ! It would give me pain 
to describe scenes which I have witnessed, when a 
child has been under the correction of a passionate 
or ill-humored parent : nay, even of a parent, in 
general character, neither passionate nor ill-hu- 
humored, but out of temper at the time. Certainly, 
punishment under such circumstances takes a most 
offensive form, and is often likely to do much more 
harm than good. Let all of us who are parents 
(and I apply this sentiment very feelingly to myself,) 
take the utmost care that our children shall have no 
cause to think, that it is partly for our " own plea- 
sure" that we correct them, and not entirely (after 






OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 115 

the example of God) for their profit, that they 
"may be partakers of his holiness." I will not 
dwell on this subject : it is a painful one, whether 
we contemplate the parent or the child; but it is 
one which ought to engage the most serious con- 
sideration, and excite the earnest prayers of all who 
wish to do their duty to their children. None, per- 
haps, stand in more need of close attention to it, 
than those who are most anxious to omit no part of 
that duty; since they will feel the faults of their 
children most keenly, and therefore may be most 
liable to have their tempers ruffled by them. 

Punishment should be employed as sparingly as is 
compatible with the attainment of its ends. It is in 
itself an evil ; and is attended by several bad conse- 
quences, which are comparatively of slight impor- 
tance when it seldom occurs, but become truly for- 
midable on its frequent repetition. These are the 
effects to be apprehended on the temper of the child, 
on its affections, and on its principles of action, and 
consequently on its conduct. Its temper and its 
affection for its parent are very likely to suffer during 
the infliction of punishment, or the immediate dread 
of it ; and if such seasons often recur, they will 
afford a degree of permanence to feelings, which 
would otherwise be incidental and transient, and 
counteracted by the general harmony and happy 
intercourse existing between the parent and child. 
On their deplorable nature, when they become hab- 
itual, I need say nothing : every parent will feel it. 
The child will also suffer with respect to its princi- 
ples of action ; for, in proportion as it is influenced 



116 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

in its daily conduct by fear of punishment, it acts 
from the motives which govern a slave ; and these 
motives will be followed by the dispositions and 
vices of a slave, (except so far as they are counter- 
acted by other and better motives, and their atten- 
dant virtues,) which are selfishness, meanness, de- 
ceit, and a propensity to tyranny and cruelty. The 
danger of these evils, and of those mentioned before, 
appalling as they are, must be encountered, when 
frequent punishment is necessary ; but surely every 
advisable method should be taken to avoid or to 
lessen that necessity. 

This view of punishment strongly shows the pro- 
priety of employing it, when unhappily it is indis- 
pensable, in such a manner, and with such accom- 
paniments, as may disarm it as much as may be of 
its mischief, and lead the mind to higher motives. 
First, then, as blows and stripes brutalize and har- 
den more than other punishments, let them, if prac- 
ticable, be avoided. They appeal to mere corporal 
feeling, without that mixture of reflection and moral 
feeling which most other punishments even of a 
corporal nature tend to excite. During an im- 
prisonment within a room or a house, a boy will 
probably be led to think; but, during a whipping, 
he seldom reflects. The difference is also apparent, 
when the alternative is between a whipping and 
some fine or privation. — Another evil attending 
blows and stripes is, that they not only so occupy 
the mind by corporal suffering, as to leave little or 
no room for other motives ; but they are apt to discom- 
pose the minds both of parent and child, and unfit 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 117 

the one to urge such motives, and the other to at- 
tend to them in a proper manner, and with a pros- 
pect of advantage. This is a most important con- 
sideration. In proportion as motives of a higher 
kind can be mixed with those of a lower, they tend 
extremely to qualify the evil which arises from the 
latter. Greatly, then, ought modes of punishment 
to be avoided, which, while they press most severely 
on our animal nature, afford the least room for the 
influence of higher principles. — After all, in some 
cases, nothing will answer the purposes of punish- 
ment but blows and stripes. These cases, however, 
will seldom, if ever, occur, I apprehend, in families 
where education has been properly conducted. 
Wherever they do occur, they ought to be treated 
with great temper and deliberation; and punish- 
ment ought to be accompanied by a clear expo- 
sition to the culprit of the necessity of its use, in 
consequence of other means having been found in- 
effectual, and by a deep and cordial expression of 
concern, that such a punishment should be ne- 
cessary; — and the infliction should be solemn, but 
not such as to excite overwhelming terror, which 
would obliterate any impression made by the pre- 
ceding conversation, and aggravate evils without a 
corresponding benefit. After the punishment, great 
pains ought to be taken to derive every attainable 
advantage from it, to remedy any evils it may have 
produced, and to prevent the necessity of its repe- 
tition. With this view, the parent should conduct 
himself towards his child with openness and affec- 
tion, and show that he has a pleasure in giving him 



118 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

rewards for good conduct, in gratifying his innocent 
wishes, and in consulting his happiness. But this 
must be done with moderation and simplicity ; and 
care must be taken that the child shall not be led to 
think that the parent is making his peace with him, 
or granting him indulgences merely because he has 
been punished. When the child's mind is tran- 
quilized, and his affections appear to flow in their 
usual course, the parent should avail himself of good 
opportunities of convincing the child of his former 
sin and folly, of the unseemliness of his fault, and 
the beauty of the opposite virtue, and of the pain 
occasioned not to the child only, but to the parent 
himself, by the infliction of the punishment: and 
this pain should be contrasted with the happiness 
all would have enjoyed, had the child behaved well. 
He should do his utmost also to make the child feel 
the force of higher motives; the pleasure which 
attends the performance of duty and the approba- 
tion of relations: and, above all, the peace which 
passeth understanding, and the bright sunshine of 
soul, which flow from the favor of God, as foretastes 
of the everlasting joys reserved for those who yield 
themselves to the guidance of his Holy Spirit and 
are renewed in his image. At the same time, temp- 
tations to former faults should be lessened as much 
as possible, the beginnings of evil should be care- 
fully watched, and immediately checked, and every 
endeavor should be used to make the progress in 
good easy and pleasant. It is unnecessary to go 
into details on other punishments. They ought to 
be employed in a similar spirit, and with similar pre- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 



119 



cautions, due regard being had to their nature and 
probable effects. 

I should be much concerned, if what I have said 
on punishments should lead any parent to omit to 
employ them when necessary. Every method should 
be used to prevent or lessen the necessity ; but when 
really wanted, they must be inflicted. In such cases, 
the omission of the punishment is an evil of the first 
magnitude. Much as I deprecate a severe system 
in education, I fully agree with an approved author, 
that one of indulgence is more to be dreaded. If 
we listen to the Divine command, we shall not spoil 
the child by sparing the rod. If we copy the Divine 
example, we shall not be led by any inducements to 
acquiesce in what is wrong. If we have a predomi- 
nant hatred of sin and love of holiness, our very 
feelings will prevent us from doing so. Our princi- 
ples and inclinations will alike impel us to act with 
vigor and perseverance in combating evil in our 
families. No parental fondness, no love of personal 
ease, will prevail with us to give up the contest. 
While our conduct exhibits mildness and gentleness, 
it will as strongly be marked by firmness and de- 
cision. 

Let not any parent fear the loss of his child's 
affection from proper strictness in education, when 
combined with the other parts of the course I am 
recommending. I am convinced that, on the con- 
trary, the child's love for him will be increased by 
such strictness making a part of his system. With- 
out it, there will be less esteem, perhaps no esteem, 
for the parent ; and it is unnecessary to show, how 



120 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

very greatly esteem contributes to real affection ; so 
greatly indeed that I believe an attempt to obtain 
genuine affection by indulgence will not only fail, 
but will produce the opposite effect. Indulgence 
will foster selfishness and sensuality, and with them 
hardness of heart. A person whom you indulge 
will often love to be with you, will cling to you, 
and show great fondness ; but cease to indulge, and 
comparative coldness and indifference will quickly 
follow. Does not this change prove that self was at 
the bottom of former appearances, and was the 
chief if not the only object of affection ? — Can we 
wonder at such a result ? God's blessing accompa- 
nies the performance of duty; his displeasure its 
omission. With his blessing, all things will work 
together for good. With his displeasure, what can 
be expected but disappointment and evil ? 

I should enlarge somewhat more on this very im- 
portant subject, though conscious that I have al- 
ready detained my readers long upon it, had there 
not appeared, in the Christian Observer for January 
1813, two letters which throw light on the point be- 
fore us, as well as on others of high importance in 
education, and possess the advantage of showing, 
as it were, general rules reduced to practice. These 
letters, with a short one explanatory of the occasion 
on which they were written, are inserted in an Ap- 
pendix. 

Rewards are an engine in the hands of a parent, 
which he will employ with pleasure,— a pleasure 
which, while it sweetens his own labors, will in- 
crease the affection of his child, by showing what 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 121 

an interest he takes in his happiness, and will im- 
part double value to the gift he may bestow. To 
give churlishly or grudgingly would be so mon- 
strous, that nothing need be said to prevent such a 
practice ; but I have not seldom thought that I have 
seen rewards bestowed on children in a manner 
somewhat ungracious, and consequently received 
with far less pleasure than would otherwise have 
been excited, and, what is more important, with 
little or no appearance of gratitude to the donor. 
Surely this mode of giving ought to be carefully 
avoided. We all know how very greatly our 
feelings, on receiving a present, depend on the man- 
ner in which it is offered to us. Will it be supposed, 
that the sensibility of children is less alive on such 
occasions ? But there are errors more common and 
more prejudicial. Rewards are often of such a 
nature as to nourish sensuality, prodigality, or (es- 
pecially in girls) vanity ; and still more frequently 
no care is taken to instil into the child, that they 
are not to be considered principally as means of 
personal gratification, but rather as means of use- 
fulness and sources of bounty. If we would avoid 
these evils, it is apparent that the gratification of 
the palate should not be consulted, and that showy 
articles of dress and unmeaning toys are not good 
rewards. Still less is money, (especially much of it,) 
when it is to be spent just as the child pleases. But 
whatever is given, children should be early taught 
that they are trustees under God ; and that an em- 
ployment of what they receive from their parents or 
others in a way pleasing to him, while it will obtain 

M 



122 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

his favor will also sweeten all their enjoyments. 
They will be easily made to feel this, if some pains 
are taken to select objects of bounty whom they 
love, or with whom they will readily sympathize ; 
and to point out little purchases, as proper books, or 
tools, or useful toys, which may lead to their im- 
provement, or exercise their ingenuity, or promote 
active exertion, at the same time that they afford 
pleasure. Thus their little property, instead of ad- 
ministering to frivolity and other vicious propensi- 
ties, may contribute very materially to the invigo- 
rating of their bodily and mental powers, the form- 
ing of their dispositions, and, above all, to their 
being early trained in the most important, perhaps, 
of all habits, that of viewing all they possess as not 
their own but God's, and that of always associating 
pleasure with duty, and of considering the former 
as not only unhallowed in itself, but as wanting its 
best ingredient, and scarcely to deserve its name, 
when severed from the latter. 

But the highest and noblest use of rewards is to 
raise the soul to its proper elevation, — to give noble 
and generous motives their due influence over it, 
and to emancipate it from a thraldom to those of an 
inferior kind. The former are, gratitude and love 
to God, the Giver of all good ; and to parents and 
other benefactors, his vicegerents on earth, in its 
distribution. The latter are, a love of pleasure and 
an aversion to pain. In proportion as the first pre- 
dominate, selfishness is counteracted; and we are 
led to the contemplation, and love, and imitation of 
the adorable perfections of the Divine Nature. A 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 123 

human being, in whom the last are the ruling prin- 
ciple, is shut up, as it were, within the narrow 
bounds of self, and will be engaged in studying the 
gratification of those mean and grovelling dispo- 
sitions which he brought into the world. He will 
remain what he was originally, " earthly, sensual, 
devilish," " a lover of pleasure rather than a lover 
of God." How indispensable, then, is it to lead the 
youthful mind to look beyond the mere possession 
of a reward, and of the gratifications it can bestow ; 
to direct its view to the love of the immediate donor 9 
and, above all, to the love of Him who put that love 
into the donor's heart, and conferred upon him all 
his ability to be bountiful, and created the very 
thing which the child has received from his bounty ! 
Parental endeavors to give a child such views will 
naturally be accompanied by an exposition of the 
Divine holiness and justice, and of the impossibility 
of the unholy being permanently the objects of Di- 
vine love. The wisdom of God will also be de- 
scribed as opening to his view every recess of the 
human heart ; and his power as making it impossi- 
ble to escape the punishment, or lose the blessings, 
he appoints. Thus his whole character will be 
brought before the child ; and those attributes which 
would be most likely to be repulsive, coming, as it 
were, in the train of love and bounty, will be awful 
without producing horror; and, by the Divine help, 
affection and veneration will be excited in harmo- 
nious union in his bosom. Oh, the joy of heart to 
the parent, who sees his child enter upon the blessed 
path which is to lead him to his God ! Let him spare 



124 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

no pains in conducting him forward in it, in 
smoothing it to his steps, and in shielding him from 
seduction to the right or left. He must not hope to 
effect his object by set lectures, at stated times, 
They would not improbably disgust rather than 
benefit ; and even if they could be made agreeable 
and impressive, they would be forgotten in the hour 
of temptation. His object can only be attained by 
watching the little incidents of the day, and taking 
advantage of them for its promotion. This course 
must be pursued gently, and as pleasantly as possi- 
ble to the child ; but always by means which God 
will approve, and with a deep sense of the infinite 
importance of the end in view. There must be no 
flattery, no deceit, no superficial healing of spiritual 
wounds ; but zeal and honesty must be combined 
with due allowances for the weakness, tenderness, 
and volatility of a child, and with patience, benig- 
nity, and love. 

If the letters in the Christian Observer, already 
mentioned, had not appeared, I should have enlarged 
rather more on some points connected with this sub- 
ject than will now be necessary. It may be suffi- 
cient to say briefly, Let a parent, in pursuing the 
course which has been recommended, have recourse 
to representations, appeals, persuasions, and make 
the best use he can of hymns and passages of Scrip- 
ture already learnt by the child. Let him touch the 
conscience, awaken shame, affection, gratitude. Let 
him encourage openness and confidence by kindness 
and sympathy ; and keep back the exercise of pa- 
rental authority as much as he can, showing that he 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 125 

wishes not to use it, and that, if obliged to do so, he 
will be influenced solely by a sense of duty. But 
though it is his daily endeavor to copy the beautiful 
forbearance of St. Paul towards Philemon, he must 
guard against laxity and weaknes. He must not 
fail through tenderness to the child, or from atten- 
tion to his own ease or convenience, duly to notice 
the faults he may discover. In this respect he must 
act on a system, and with undeviating consistency 
and steadiness. He will watch against the risings 
of bad tempers, and against mere professions ; and 
counteract such evils by his own good temper, by 
his own truth and modesty and simplicity, and by 
turning the eye of his child upon his heart, as well 
as by more direct, though perhaps not more effica- 
cious, means. When the child has committed a 
fault, he will allow time for recovery from inciden- 
tal agitations, and accept no professions of repen- 
tance and good intention while the state of the heart 
appears doubtful: taking care to impress on the 
child, that the great object he should have in view 
should be to make his peace with God ; that the of- 
fence has been an offence against God, who sees the 
inmost soul. He will feel the high importance of 
the work in which he is engaged, and his own weak- 
ness and insufficiency ; and will put up from time to 
time secret aspirations to God for his blessing on 
himself, as well as on his child ; and will persevere 
until there is a satisfactory appearance of mild and 
ingenuous repentance. Though the child should 
not be brought by his labors to true Christian con- 
version, (for in that great work, so peculiarly his 

m 2 



126 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

own, God will grant certainty of success to no hu- 
man agent,) yet they will not fail, I think, to make a 
salutary impression. A consciousness of right and 
wrong will be strengthened ; fear will become less a 
principle of action ; and conscience will stand more 
in the place of punishment. His love of his parents, 
and his deference for them, will increase : good 
habits will be formed, and a general respect at least 
for religion will be cherished. He will, in this way, 
undergo an important change. The system under 
which he is brought up is " the nurture and admo- 
nition of the Lord ;" and his parent may humbly 
hope that it will be " a schoolmaster to bring him to 
Christ." With many present disappointments, per- 
haps, as to its effects, he may yet humbly hope that 
its value will be deeply felt at some future and more 
happy period, when, under God's providence, the 
soil is fully prepared for the growth of the good seed. 
Then may that sown in childhood shoot up with 
vigor, and bear abundant fruit. But very fre- 
quently, I am convinced, God vouchsafes a more 
speedy and visible blessing. The parent sees the 
work of genuine regeneration commence and pro- 
ceed under his eye in early youth. He has the su- 
preme happiness of seeing his child, with true sub- 
mission of heart, look up to his Saviour, and put 
himself under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In 
religion, indeed, as in every thing, the child will be a 
child — ill informed, weak, wavering, and inconsis- 
tent : but still there may be satisfactory evidence 
that he is gradually conquering his native corrup- 
tions, and beginning to acquire Christian graces; 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION, 127 

that he is renewing in the spirit of his mind, and at- 
taining a portion of the image of God. 

It may be proper to add, on the subject of rewards, 
that, in addition to the value they derive from other 
considerations, they possess high importance in cases 
in which punishment must be often employed, as 
antidotes to the evils which attend it. Without them, 
(as in many public schools,) punishment has a great 
tendency to exasperate and harden; and that to 
such a degree as even to lead the culprit to glory in 
suffering, without shrinking at the time, and without 
being at all affected either before or after. In pro- 
portion to the horror with which a Christian parent 
contemplates such obduracy, will he be anxious to 
prevent every approach to it : and it is obvious how 
much the right employment of rewards will assist 
him in his endeavors, by showing his affection, 
softening the heart of the child, and placing it under 
the influence of a better motive than fear. I know 
a numerous family, in which there is seldom a 
greater punishment inflicted, than the withholding 
of a reward. When this is not sufficient, some de- 
duction is generally made from a little property in 
the parent's hands, consisting of an accumulation 
of rewards. In that family it is usual, after every 
lesson, to give some number, proportioned to its 
merit, to be added to the numerical sum possessed 
by the child from former rewards. The addition is 
performed by the child, who may incur a known 
loss of one or two, if the calculation should be 
wrong. These numbers are considered as worth a 
certain sum, say Is. per hundred; and the child 



128 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

receives for them at the established rate, upon ap- 
plication, for any purpose which the parent ap 
proves. The remaining numbers, not exchanged 
for money, continue the property of the child. — This 
little detail may appear unnecessary ; but education 
consists of details, and its success depends much on 
their proper selection and management. A system 
of this sort comprises many advantages; for, besides 
being a regular plan for conferring rewards, it makes 
the child early acquainted with property and its 
uses, and provides for his property being the reward 
of his merit ; and it also places the whole so imme- 
diately under the eye and control of the parent, as 
to enable him both to prevent its abuse and to give 
any suggestions as to its employment. It possesses 
a further advantage of some consequence ; that of 
rendering children adroit in adding and subtracting 
by the head, without this being made a regular ob- 
ject of study. 

I cannot dismiss the consideration of rewards and 
punishments, without cautioning parents, on the 
one hand, against the mischief of permitting ser- 
vants, except in very particular cases, to employ them 
to any considerable extent; and on the other, against 
suffering those faults and merits of children which 
manifest themselves in the nursery to escape due 
notice. — Having already made some remarks on the 
general character of servants with reference to edu- 
cation, it will be unnecessary now to enlarge on 
that point. The management of punishments is far 
too delicate to be entrusted to such hands. When a 
child is very violent, he must indeed be put under 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 129 

immediate restraint by any one who happens to be 
present : but servants should not be allowed to do 
more in this way than the exigency of the case de- 
mands ; and recourse should immediately be had to 
the parents, or, in their absence, to those who supply 
their place. With respect to rewards, servants would 
probably be lavish, and indiscriminate, and capri- 
cious in their use, neither guarding against the evils 
to be feared, nor forming any tolerable estimate of 
the higher and more durable advantages to be de- 
rived from them. Something must be allowed in a 
nursery in the way both of punishment and reward : 
but it ought to be confined within very narrow 
limits. The parents, particularly the mother, should 
keep a vigilant eye over the course of things there, 
and interfere in person in all cases of importance. 

From several of the preceding observations, it 
will be inferred, that very much may be done in in- 
ducing a child to perform his duty without having 
recourse to rewards and punishments. Appeals to 
his sense of right and wrong, to his gratitude and 
his love, to his dread of the displeasure and desire 
of the favor of his parents, and far more of his 
Sanctifier, his Saviour, and his Heavenly Father : — 
such appeals, pressed with tenderness, but with 
warmth, and accommodated to the age, knowledge, 
and disposition of the child, will be found of great 
efficacy at a very early age, and will become more 
potent instruments of good in proportion as a child 
advances in knowledge, in right feeling, and in 
sound habits, and, above all, as he obtains more 
and more of the Divine blessing. A parent ought, 



130 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

from the very commencement of education, to look 
principally to these means of exciting his child " to 
eschew evil, and to do good ;" and should consider 
rewards and punishments as inferior and subordi- 
nate. How will he rejoice to observe the increasing 
influence of these higher and nobler motives, and 
his child making a progress towards that holy state 
in which they become decidedly the paramount 
principles of action — the undisputed lords of all 
other principles ! — But I must not suffer myself to 
dwell a second time on this animating subject. 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 131 



CHAP. VII. 

Example. — Emulation. — Effect of personal Character of 
Parents. — Deceit. 

There is one additional stimulus to be used with 
children : it is that of example. — We all know how 
powerfully this is recommended as a source of good 
by our holy religion. Jesus, our Saviour "was 
given us as an example, that we should follow his 
steps." What Christian, who contemplates that 
blessed Example with holy affection, and who feels 
a warm gratitude for the unutterable condescension 
of his Divine Master, in affording to him this help in 
his spiritual course, will not exert himself to give 
his children all the benefit he can, from the example, 
not only of Christ, but of those who, however in- 
ferior, are yet his true servants ! He will extend his 
view further, and, from the mass of characters of a 
lower description, he will select examples to be 
placed before his children. Here, indeed, he will 
proceed with much caution, and employ much dis- 
crimination. But as he will observe, even among 
persons of this class, many who are eminent for 
some amiable disposition, or useful habit, or praise- 
worthy attainment, so he will not fail to draw the 
attention of his pupil to them ; and, in pointing out 
to him what may be effected by the force of very 
inferior motives, he will impress on his mind what 



132 



A PRACTICAL VIEW 



ought to be the efficacy of those which flow from 
the religion of Christ. He will also hold out, but 
with more reluctance and reserve, not only those 
who are, in the most emphatical sense, vicious char- 
acters, but also those who have grossly neglected 
means of improvement, and those whose conduct, 
whether through error or thoughtlessness, is absurd 
or mischievous, as warnings to deter from like 
courses. There are many and great advantages in 
conveying instruction in this way. What is holy, 
estimable, and amiable, or the reverse, will be better 
understood, and especially by children, when ex- 
hibited in action, than when described in the ab- 
stract. It will also be far more likely, according to 
its real quality, to engage the affections, or create 
disgust and abhorrence, when so exhibited ; for it is 
a general, though by no means a universal truth, 
that, to an unsophisticated mind, virtue in active 
life will be lovely, and vice hateful. A parent will 
take care at first, to select instances for his child's 
observation, in which these appear clearly in their 
appropriate colors ; and afterwards, when his esti- 
mate of things becomes pretty just, and his taste 
tolerably correct, the parent will venture, by de- 
grees, to call his attention to other instances, in 
which good and bad qualities or habits are so inter- 
mixed as to lead a careless observer to wrong con- 
clusions, affording to his pupil the benefit of his own 
experience in developing and separating the compo- 
nent parts of such characters, and in assigning to 
each due praise or blame. Such representations 
will obtain a more easy admission into the youthful 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 133 

mind, if accompanied by proofs of the tendency of 
virtue to promote happiness, and vice misery. This 
tendency must be shown, not in any abstract way, 
but by pointing out effects of this kind in the indi- 
vidual instances which come under review. If, on 
such occasions, tenderness and delicacy and discri- 
mination are combined with warmth and feeling, 
the child will listen with much interest, and the 
parent may hope for God's blessing, and for ex- 
cellent fruits from this very pleasant branch of edu- 
cation. 

In this course, however, there are serious evils to 
be avoided. 

Praise and blame must be dealt out with modera- 
tion, and often with diffidence, — No human being can 
be entitled to more than moderate praise ; and no 
man who aspires to love his neighbor as himself, 
will think himself warranted in unlimited or un- 
guarded censure, or will feel a disposition to employ 
it. To be prone to extremes in forming a judgment of 
others, is always foolish, and often highly presump- 
tuous and offensive. Woe be to the parent who 
leads his child into this error! Next to the child 
himself, he may be the greatest sufferer from so 
doing. 

He must also be careful not to foster in the child 
a fastidious or captious, or even a critical, spirit. 
Let him never fail to inculcate, that the first and 
great business of every individual is to do his own 
duty; and that, although there are many reasons 
for endeavoring to form a true estimate of the char- 
acter and conduct of others, yet this estimate must 



134 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

/ 

always be formed with modesty and charity, and 
with a recollection that we are not their judges ; — 
to their own Master they must stand or fall. If, in- 
deed, children should be unhappily exposed to much 
intercourse with those whose tempers or habits are 
blameable, and likely to mislead them, no motive of 
this nature will justify a parent in neglecting to 
guard them against the evils to be apprehended. 
He must hold up the persons in question as warn- 
ings before the eyes of his family. 

Further : he must hold out examples to his child 
in such a way as not to excite emulation. — To imi- 
tate an example is one thing ; to rival any person, 
and endeavor to obtain a superiority over him, is 
another. It is very true, as is maintained by the de- 
fenders of emulation, that it is impossible to make 
progress towards excellence without outstripping 
others. But surely there is a great difference be- 
tween the attainment of a superiority over others 
being a mere consequence of exertions arising from 
other motives, and a zeal to attain this object being 
itself a motive for exertion. Every one must see, 
that the effects produced on the mind in the two 
cases will be extremely dissimilar. Emulation is a 
desire of surpassing others, for the sake of supe- 
riority, and is a very powerful motive to exertion. 
As such, it is employed in most public schools ; but 
in none, I believe, ancient or modern, has it been so 
fully and systematically brought into action, as in 
the schools of Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster. What- 
ever may be the merits of the schools of either of 
these gentlemen in other respects, (a question on 






OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 135 

which it is unnecessary to enter,) in this they appear 
to me to commit such an offence against Christian 
morals, that no merits could atone for it. I cannot 
but think emulation an unhallowed principle of ac- 
tion ; — as scarcely, if at all, to be disjoined from jea- 
lousy and envy, from pride and contention ; — incom- 
patible with loving our neighbor as ourselves ; — and 
a principle of such potency as to be likely to engross 
the mind, and turn it habitually and violently from 
the motives which it should be the great business 
of education to cherish and render predominant : 
namely, a sense of duty, and gratitude and love to 
God. Instead of enlarging on this subject, I beg 
leave to refer the reader to Mr. Gisborne's remarks 
upon it, in his " Duties of Women." If emulation 
is an unhallowed motive, it cannot innocently be 
employed, whatever good effects may be expected 
from it. We must not do evil that good may come. 
But if any Christian should deem it not absolutely 
unhallowed, few will deny, I think, that it is ques- 
tionable and dangerous. Even then, in this more 
favorable view of emulation, ought it to be used, 
except it can be shown to be necessary for the in- 
fusion of vigor into the youthful mind, and for se- 
curing a respectable progress in literature ? I can 
say, from experience, that it is not necessary for the 
attainment of those ends. In a numerous family, 
with which I am well acquainted, emulation has 
been carefully and successfully excluded, and yet 
the acquirements of the different children have been 
very satisfactory. I can bear the same testimony 
with respect to a large Sunday School, with which 



136 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

I have been connected for many years. — I have often 
heard of virtuous emulation ; but can emulation ever 
be so characterised in a Christian sense ? Whether 
it may in that loose sense of virtue which those 
adopt who take the worldly principle of honor for 
their rule, I will not stop to inquire. 

But it is not sufficient not to excite and employ 
emulation on plan and system, as a stimulus in edu- 
cation : great care ought to be taken to exclude it. 
And great care will be necessary ; for it will be con- 
tinually ready to show itself; and if not checked, it 
will soon attain strength, strike its roots deep in the 
heart, and produce bitter fruits, which, in the eyes 
of a Christian, will be ill compensated by the extra- 
ordinary vigor and energy it will give to scholastic 
studies. When examples are held out for imitation, 
(a very different thing, be it always remembered, 
from emulation,) or as warnings, the child must be 
made sensible that its state, in the sight of God, is 
rendered neither better nor worse by the virtues or 
the faults of others, except as far as they may have 
influenced, or may have failed to influence, its own 
conduct ; — that it ought to love its neighbor as itself, 
and to rejoice in every advance made by another in 
what is good, and to lament over all his faults and 
defects, without one selfish thought being suffered 
to check the joy or the concern: — that it ought 
therefore to wish all its companions all success in 
their common studies with the same sincerity with 
which it wishes for its own success, and to be af- 
fected by their faults and failures in the same man- 
ner it would by its own. It should be made sensible, 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 137 

in proportion as it may give way to feelings the re- 
verse of these, that its "eye will be evil because 
others are good ;" and it will act in opposition to the 
injunction, " Mind not every one his own things, but 
every one also the things of others ;" and to a whole 
host of scriptural precepts and examples. These 
things must be inculcated, not by lectures in general 
terms, but by applying such views to all the little 
incidents which call for them as they successively 
arise. The child must also be made sensible how 
much better it is for himself that his companions 
should be eminent for laudable attainments, and good 
qualities ; for that, in proportion to their excellence 
in these respects, they will be useful and estimable 
companions, and ought to be objects of his affection. 
All little boasts of having done better than this or 
that brother or sister, and every disposition to dis- 
appointment when they succeed best, should be 
checked, and the lesson of " rejoicing with them that 
do rejoice, and of weeping with them that weep" must 
be very diligently inculcated. 

Lastly, a parent must take special care always to 
give the example of Jesus Christ a most decided practical 
pre-eminence above all others. — It is this to which the 
child's attention must be continually turned : it is 
this which he must be taught equally to love and to 
revere ; it is this alone on which he should learn to 
rely, with unvarying confidence, as always pure 
and perfect. In addition to the more direct and im- 
mediate benefits he will derive from thus flying to 
the example of his Saviour for guidance in his 
Christian path, he will, by the Divine blessing, be 

v 2 



138 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

powerfully led to love Him, whose blessed image is 
so frequently before his eyes. He will obtain that 
near acquaintance with his perfections, — that fre- 
quent intercourse, as it were, with Himself, — which 
will call forth increasing admiration, and reverence, 
and regard. Thus will commence a transformation 
into a similitude of that excellence which has found 
a way to his heart : and, " beholding as in a glass 
the glory of the Lord," he wilirbe " changed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as by the 
Spirit of the Lord. 55 

But all endeavors to make right impressions on 
the mind of a child will very generally be found in- 
effectual, if the character of the parent does not 
correspond with his instructions, and inspire his 
child with esteem and affection. It is surprising how 
God honors his own image among men. Faint as 
it is, even in the best, still its proximity gives it 
effect, and it exercises a portion of his own sovereign 
power over the hearts of his creatures. This has 
been found to be the case in a remarkable manner 
among savage and idolatrous nations, when holy 
men have lived for a length of time among them as 
Missionaries. Every one must be struck with the 
effect produced by living examples of the Christian 
graces, on reading the accounts of the Moravian 
Missions ; and still more, perhaps,- when in the his- 
tory of India he finds what a wonderful ascendancy 
the holy Swartz obtained over the Hindus of all 
ranks, from the highest to the lowest. But it is un- 
necessary to look so far from home, to be convinced 
of this truth. We every day see it exemplified 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 139 

among ourselves in the respect and affection which 
good men generally acquire, when their light has 
long shone before the same neighbourhood. If the 
beauties of the Christian character thus recommend 
themselves to persons of mature age, whose evil 
habits are often so confirmed, and whose tastes are 
so vitiated, it will not be matter of wonder that they 
should have peculiar charms for the minds of chil- 
dren. Let a parent exhibit this character with con- 
sistency and prudence, and he w T ill seldom fail to be 
loved and revered by his children. And when this 
is the case, what authority will belong to his ex- 
ample ! what weight to all his admonitions ! what 
ready attention will be paid to his very wishes! 
The difficulties of education will be wonderfully 
smoothed. El-humor, distate to particular studies, 
impatience under restraints, eye-service and deceit, 
a disposition to look on a parent as a hard master, 
not to mention other evils, will be in a very great 
degree avoided. If it may be allowable to use the 
Prophet's language, " crooked places will be made 
straight, and rough places plain." But in propor- 
tion as a parent fails to resemble in character that 
Divine Being who appoints him, as it were, his 
vicegerent in his family, this picture will fail to be 
realized ; and in the worst cases it will be reversed. 
Let, then, every parent look well to himself. — Having 
touched on this most important subject, when treat- 
ing of education at an earlier age, I will not enlarge 
on it now. I cannot, however, omit to mention an 
incident, which (thanks to God !) made a very salu- 
tary impression on me many years ago. On enter- 



140 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

ing the school-room of a Moravian Family, I saw, 
amidst some appropriate inscriptions on the wall, 
intended as momentos to the children, the following 
one put up by the teacher for her own use : " Never 
correct in anger." Much might be expected in a 
young family where the governess was so conscious 
of the importance of strict watchfulness over her- 
self, as to record, in the face of her scholars, her 
own condemnation, if she should ever suffer herself 
to be led to exercise her authority in one of its most 
delicate and important functions, when disqualified 
by a want of temper from exercising it properly. 
Such self-attention could not be confined to a single 
point, but, having entered the system, would pervade 
its different parts. My expectations were not dis- 
appointed. A more estimable teacher, and better 
taught, better principled, more affectionate, more 
orderly, and more happy scholars, I think I never 
saw. The excellent instructress would find, in her 
own personal improvement, and in the gratification 
she could not fail to derive from the state of her 
scholars, and from their respect and love, a tenfold 
recompense for all her resolute self-scrutiny and 
self-denial. Let us follow her steps, and we may all 
humbly hope for a like reward. 

It is my object to propose, for the consideration of 
parents, the general principles in education which 
appear to me to form the right foundation for such 
details in practice, as the endless variety in the dis- 
positions of children may require. With one ex- 
ception, therefore, I shall not enter on a considera- 
tion of specific faults. This exception is deceit— I 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 141 

select this vice, not because it is pre-eminent in enor- 
mity, but because it cherishes all other vices, by 
opposing itself to the means employed for their 
removal. By the secresy in which it delights, and 
the veil which it casts over the character, it prevents 
evils from being clearly discovered ; and by assu- 
ming a fair appearance of repentance when they 
are detected ; and sometimes even when they secretly 
exist in great malignity, by making a specious show 
of the opposite virtues, it baffles the endeavors of 
relations to remove them, and completely shuts out 
genuine repentance and reformation. While other 
vices predominate in the soul, there are often recur- 
rences of deep remorse and earnest prayer, and of 
very considerable exertions to conquer them ; — but 
deceit usually stifles mental pangs, lulls the soul into 
a fatal apathy, and employs all those energies in 
riveting its chains, which ought to be exerted for its 
deliverance. Other vices are, generally, neither 
present at all times, nor regular in their return : but 
deceit is always at work, and scarcely allows of an 
interval, in which the soul is so far relieved from 
its immediate influence as to be in a state to re- 
cover from its thraldom. No wonder, then, that 
this vice should possess an awful pre-eminence in 
vitiating the character, and hardening the heart ! 
In our blessed Saviour's severe condemnation of the 
Scribes and Pharisees, where he accuses them of 
almost every species of crime, their hypocrisy is 
placed in the very fore-front of their offences, and 
insisted upon again and again; ' Woe unto you, 
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites !" How, anxious, 



142 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

then, should a parent be to guard every avenue to 
such a crime, by checking the first dawnings of art 
and deceit, whatever appearance they may assume, 
and by encouraging truth, ingenuousness, and sim- 
plicity of character in every possible way. The 
child ought to be armed against temptations to de 
ceit, by being forewarned on what occasions they 
will present themselves, and instructed by what 
means they are to be resisted. He should also be 
strongly reminded, when such occasions actually 
occur, of the existing danger; and such a course 
should be pursued by the parent as to facilitate his 
escape. 

Thus, when a fault has been committed or a little 
difference with a playfellow has occured, and an 
explanation is required by the parent, great care 
should be taken to remind the child of the duty 
of truth and ingenuousness, and to check that 
eagerness and haste, in the relation of circum- 
stances which will be likely to lead him to give 
a false color to them. The danger of his pal- 
liating some things, and exaggerating others, should 
be pointed out ; and while he is kindly warned 
how grievously his fault (if he should have com- 
mitted one) would be aggravated by such con- 
duct, the loveliness of truth and candor in the 
eyes both of God and man, and especially under 
trying circumstances, should be set before him, 
and he should receive every proper encourage- 
ment to adhere to them. When he has done 
his duty in this respect, whatever may have been 
amiss in his preceding conduct should be noticed 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 143 

in as lenient a manner as is compatible with 
a full maintenance of the distinction between 
right and wrong, and a due sense of the im- 
portance of the particular case. He should be 
made to feel how tenderly he is treated on ac- 
count of his candor, and how very different his 
treatment would have been had he acted other- 
wise. But, above all, he should be made sensible 
of the terrible load of Divine wrath which must 
press upon every child who endeavors to hide 
or excuse a fault by lies, prevarication, or con- 
cealment : of the impossibility of pardon without 
repentance, and of the impossibility of cordial re- 
pentance when the mouth will not " make con- 
fession unto salvation." Then should be described 
in mild and sober, but warm colors, (warm from 
the lively, parental and Christian impressions 
whence they proceed,) the infinite blessing of an 
approving conscience, and of that peace which 
passeth all understanding, arising from a sense 
of sin forgiven, and of Divine favor restored, 
contrasted with the corroding sense of unpar- 
doned guilt, and of being subject to the frown 
of an offended God. If the child has been well- 
educated, his feelings will readily respond to the 
notes you strike, and you will see in his coun- 
tenance and air a cordial assent to the scriptural 
representation, that " the ways of religion are 
ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace ;" 
and that the wicked has no peace, but "is like 
the troubled sea, which cannot rest." — When a lie 
has been detected, it should be treated as one 



144 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

of the greatest crimes, and every endeavor should 
be used to fix its guilt on the conscience, and 
lead the culprit to deep and genuine repentance. 
Even much lighter instances of falsehood should 
meet with very serious attention. Pains should 
be taken to point out their connexion with lies, 
and their derivation from the same principle, 
and, consequently, their hatefulness in the sight 
of God. The conduct which ought to have been 
pursued by the child should be particularized, 
and its beauty and happy consequences dwelt up- 
on and contrasted with the deformity of the fault 
which he has committed, and the guilt, and re- 
morse, and parental distrust, and Divine dis- 
pleasure which he has incurred. — Deceit often 
takes deep root in a child from such jokes and 
tricks being allowed as afford it encouragement. 
Jokes and tricks are not only generally con- 
nected with art, but very frequently derive their 
supposed merit from that very circumstance. 
Surely this is playing with edged tools! The 
child, who is allowed to sharpen its wits in over- 
reaching his companions in joke, will soon ac- 
quire a taste for that employment of his faculties, 
and simplicity and plain dealing will appear in- 
sipid to him. From deceiving in jest, he will 
soon proceed to deceive in earnest ; and the plea- 
sure which he has been in the habit of deriving 
from success in the one course will be felt, and 
perhaps in a higher degree, from success in the 
other. Is it not by much the safer course to 
discountenance, and even forbid, the exercise of 






OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 145 

ingenuity in the way that has been mentioned ? 
God, in his wisdom and goodness, has supplied 
an abundance of innocent means of exhilarating 
the mind, and drawing forth its powers, and many 
of them are of the most useful kind. Such will 
present themselves to every parent, and leave those 
without excuse who permit dangerous habits among 
their children, for the sake of improving their fa- 
culties, and promoting their happiness. I would 
not say, as the poet does of a bold peasantry, 
that simplicity and integrity of mind, 

When once destroyed, for ever will be lost ; 

but I believe, that of all good dispositions these 
are restored with the greatest difficulty when art 
and cunning, and deceit, have had possession of 
the soul. It sometimes . happens, that the harsh 
means used by a parent to eradicate a fault lead 
the child to deceit. The temptation to deny his 
guilt, and escape the very severe punishment he 
expects, is almost irresistible.. Sometimes also the 
methods taken to extort confession when a fault 
is strongly suspected, lead to a false confession, 
when the child is really innocent. With what hor- 
ror have I seen a lady recollect a scene of this 
kind in which she was engaged when a child!* 

One of the most pregnant sources of deceit in 
children is the art to which those who manage 

* There is an interesting anecdote on this subject in the Chris- 
tian Observer, vol. ii. p. 665. 



146 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

them have recourse. If a parent is disengenuous ; 
if he employs false pretences to attain his ends ; 
if he affects dispositions which he does not feel ; 
or in any other way violates truth and sincerity 
in his conduct towards his child, or even in his 
conduct towards other persons in the presence of 
his child; he may be assured that great evil will 
follow. It is surprising how quick children are in 
discovering the dispositions and motives of those 
about them, in detecting any inconsistency between 
their practice and their professions. This acuteness 
and sensibility, however, while they make a bad 
example in a parent extremely dangerous, give 
proportionate weight and efficacy to a good one. 
Let him uniformly adhere to simplicity and god- 
ly sincerity; let him yield to no inducement to 
violate those fundamental and beautiful branches 
of the Christian character, by any appearances of 
present expediency, either in the management of 
his child or in any other part of his conduct ; and 
employing at the same time other fit means to 
promote the spiritual welfare of his offspring, he 
may look forward with confidence to a happy re- 
sult. His example will be a daily lecture of the 
most impressive kind. But no soundness of doc- 
trine, no industry in teaching, no ability in per- 
suation, will be sufficient to afford him a rati- 
onal hope of success, if his own example is op- 
posed to his instructions, and the child has reason 
to suspect that he is acting a part. 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 147 



CHAP. VIII. 

Attrition to Children when not at their Lessons. — Amuse- 
ments. — Behaviour ofChildrento each other. — Quarrels. 
— A Domineering or a Teasing Spirit. — Selfishness 
and Jealousy. — Conduct of the two Sexes to each other. 
— Domestic Effects in well and ill educated Families con- 
trasted. — Acquaintance. — Familiarity with Servants. 

I have intimated the necessity of a viligant at- 
tention to children, during the time when they are 
not engaged by their lessons ; and I must now 
dwell a little on this important branch of my 
subject. 

If the primary object in education be to put 
things in the most favorable state for the for- 
mation of a new creature, through the influence 
of the Holy Spirit, in opposition to the strong 
bent of Nature, how can it be hoped that this 
will be effected, if, during great part, and in early 
childhood by far the greatest part, of every day, 
Nature is suffered to take her course with only 
partial and irregular counteraction from the pa- 
rent ; and if the new principle and spirit to be 
infused and cherished meet with as partial and 
irregular support ? We all know, that in the 
moral as in the natural world, powerful and sys- 



148 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

tematic tendencies will not fail to produce a large 
share of their appropriate effects, unless opposed 
by what is also powerful and systematic. Thus 
in the planetary system, the constant force of 
gravity is only balanced by the centrifugal force, 
equally constant ; and in our political system, the 
tendency of each of the branches which form the 
legislature to increase its own power, would not 
be kept in check, if the other two bodies were not 
continually ready to resist incroachments, either 
by the exercise of their constitutional powers, or 
(as is generally the case in practice) by their in- 
fluence. Is then the natural tendency of man to 
evil the only uniform tendency which does not re- 
quire constant counteraction ? And is it in his 
earliest years, before settled habits of virtue are 
formed, and before systematic caution and recol- 
lection to guard against deflections from the right 
path are acquired, that we can safely dispense 
with such counteraction ? The prudent Christian 
father will judge far otherwise. His parental watch- 
fulness will be as unremitting as circumstances 
will allow, and the care and earnestness with 
which it will be employed will be in some mea- 
sure proportionate to the supreme importance of 
the object to be attained. I will proceed to point 
out some leading points, which will require at- 
tention when the child is out of the school-room. 

First then with respect to amusements. — Of these 
God has made a most liberal provision, and I 
need not show that they are absolutely neces- 
sary for children. The parent ought to take care 






OF GtUUSTJAfl EDUCATION. 140 

that they are not only harmless, but as useful 
as possible : and very useful they may be rend- 
ered, if he give his attention to this point with just 
views of human nature and of vital religion. By 
being forward to promote his child's pleasures, he 
will increase his affection, and gain his confidence, 
and sweeten the restraints and labors of the school- 
room : — by guiding him in the selection of them, 
he will show him practically what a natural pro- 
pensity children have to sinful gratification, but 
what a sting such gratifications leave behind them ; 
and also what an abundance of innocent plea- 
sures our all-bountiful God has placed within our 
reach. He will make him sensible how frequent^, 
while amusing liimself, he may promote the hap- 
piness of others, and cherish just principles and 
good dispositions in his own bosom : and that plea- 
sures which produce such fruits will generally be 
the sweetest in immediate enjoyment, and still 
sweeter in retrospect. He will also communicate 
much useful knowledge, while his child thinks 
only of his own amusement ; and he will disco- 
ver many a fault and many a promising disposition, 
which would scarcely have shown themselves a- 
midst the restraints of the school-room. He will 
often find himself able to correct the one without 
any grave process for that purpose ; and he will 
take advantage of the other at a season when the 
openness of the heart and the flow of the affec- 
tions give him the best opportunity of connecting it 
with Christian principle, and of giving it a holy di- 
rection. Above all, he will make him sensible how 



150 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

conducive good principles are to pleasure ; that not 
only he is the happy man, but 

He is the happy boy, whose life ev'n now, 
Shows somewhat of that happier life to come : — 

that the ways of religion are " ways of pleasant- 
ness, and all her paths are peace." This will be 
done by leading him to compare the 

Solid and heartfelt delight 

which he has enjoyed in amusements sanctioned by 
the Divine approbation, with the anxiety and the 
fears which must attend guilty pleasures, and the 
remorse which must follow them. He will thus 
begin to learn from his own experience, that 

True piety is cheerful as the day ; 

and that the misgivings and forebodings of a troubled 
conscience must poison every enjoyment. And this 
truth early fixed, and strongly felt at the time of 
life when the sensibily is all alive, will do much, by 
God's blessings, towards securing him from the 
power of temptations not only in childhood, but at 
subsequent periods, when many of them will attack 
him with greater force. — Let it not be thought, that 
the age of the parent will unfit him for promoting 
the pleasures of his child in his play-hours. On the 
contrary, if, instead of forcing amusements upon the 
child, he suffers him to follow, in a great measure, 
ihe bent of his inclinations, and merely prevents 



OP CHRISTIAN EDUCATION*. 151 

every thing wrong, while he now and then lends his 
aid to remove little obstacles and to forward his 
child's objects, he will find himself a very acceptable 
companion. He will admire the Divine wisdom and 
benevolence, which, while it makes youth the joy of 
age, thus enables age, not only to guide the inex- 
perience, but to sweeten the pleasures of youth. 

But a parent must not expect to be a pleasing and 
useful companion to his child, without making some 
sacrifices. As in the material, so in the moral and 
intellectual worlds, there is no region in which those 
who will not submit to the toil of culture can expect 
a harvest. He must often forego his own wishes, to 
meet those of his child. During a walk, for instance, 
he must be content to break the thread of his own 
thoughts to give explanations which cannot but 
appear to him trifling, and to hear remarks which 
convey to him no information. At one time, he 
may be requested to look at a pebble when he was 
ruminating on the re-establishment of the indepen- 
dence of Europe ; and at another, he may be called 
to cut a twig from a tree when looking at a fine 
passage in Milton. If, however, he form a right 
estimate of education, he will bear such interrup- 
tions with complacency ; and reflect, that the pebble 
and the twig, viewed in connection with their con- 
comitant circumstances, may probably be, at that 
time, more important objects of his attention than 
European Politics or our great Epic Poet. And 
when, at the close of the day, he reviews its events, 
with how much greater pleasure will he look back 
on such little instances of self-denial, and on the 



1 52 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

advantage he may hope that his boy lias received 
from them, than he could on his speculations re- 
specting the happy results of the late war, or on the 
pleasure which he derived from the noble flights of 
Milton. — Not that a parent is to give up all his time 
to his children. This surrender would be incompa- 
tible with the discharge of his other duties. But he 
will do well, I think, in allotting to their society, and 
without allowing the intervention of such company 
as would prevent him from giving to them his atten- 
tion, a portion of the time which he sets apart for 
recreation. 

In superintending the amusements of children, it 
is important to give them a taste for those which 
are not expensive and are easily obtained, and which 
are calculated to draw forth ingenuity, and to exer- 
cise bodily and mental powers. Such as are expen- 
sive — as have little but novelty to recommend them 
— as have any connection with mischief or deceit, or 
are likely to give pain to any companion, or even to 
any of the brute creation — ought to be carefully 
avoided. — It is obvious, that games of violent com- 
petition are very likely to lead to evil ; and indeed, 
all competition is dangerous in a greater or a less 
degree, and calls for vigilant attention on the part 
of a parent, especially where the competition is 
direct and palpable, and the temper of the child is 
sanguine and ardent. It should be a rule in a game 
of competition, that as soon as a child shows any 
unfairness or wrong temper, or plays in a way 
likely to excite bad tempers in others, he is no longer 
to be considered as fit for such a sport, and must 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 153 

leave it to those who have more generous integrity, 
gentleness, and self-command. If he can himself be 
made sensible of his weakness, and brought into a 
disposition voluntarily to relinquish an amusement 
which in his case involves a breach of duty, this will 
be far better than the exercise of parental authority : 
but if his passions are too far engaged to admit of 
this victory of reason and principle, the parent must 
interfere with such decision as to stop the progress 
of mischief. Sedentary games of chance or skill, 
as drafts, are certainly dangerous, when in frequent 
use, and I think that they are better avoided alto- 
gether. They are objectionable, partly because they 
are sedentary, and therefore ill-suited to an age 
when lively exercise is so natural and so conducive 
to health and vigor ; partly, because their very es- 
sense is competition ; but chiefly, because they may 
give a taste for cards, and perhaps for gaming. 
Little gardens distributed amongst the children of a 
family, and to be managed entirely by themselves, 
are admirable sources of amusement. A few small 
tools and implements of carpentry, in a father's 
custody, to be lent occasionally to his children, an- 
swer an excellent purpose ; and particularly if he is 
qualified to assist a little, when difficulties occur in 
the use of them. 

But whatever are the favorite amusements, which 
will vary with the age, sex, and natural turn of 
mind, moderation in them is of the highest importance. 
Children ought to learn early that life and all our 
faculties are given to us rather for business than for 
pleasure; that they are talents to be employed in 



154 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

our Lord's service, and must not be wasted in idleness 
or frivolous pursuits. Amusement must be represent- 
ed as no longer innocent, when encroaching on the 
time which ought to be employed in serious occupa- 
tions, to which it must always be considered as subor- 
dinate. It must be represented as truly sweet, (such 
is the wise and gracious connection which God has 
appointed between pleasure and duty,) only when 
confined within due bounds; and as producing 
satiety — as engrossing the mind, and alienating it 
from God— as generating bad passions— and as lead- 
ing to shame and remorse, and to eternal ruin, when 
it occupies the chief place in the heart. Thus per- 
sons who have given themselves up to wickedness, 
are described in Scripture as "lovers of pleasure 
more than lovers of God ;" and the rich man in the 
parable is said to be tormented in hell, because in 
this life his great object was to indulge in pleasure. 
This is a point, in which young people are very apt 
to transgress. 

There is one amusement which I have reserved 
for separate consideration ; because, while it affords 
high gratification, it is also, under proper manage- 
ment, a most important source of improvement, — 
but if subject to no regulations, it is pregnant with 
the greatest evils. I speak of private reading. Of 
late years, a great variety of little books extremely 
well calculated to amuse children, and at the same 
time to make virtue lovely and vice hateful, have 
been sent into the world. These should be carefully 
selected from the great mass of indifferent and mis- 
chievous publications ; and one or another of them 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 155 

will generally take the fancy of a child, as soon as 
he can read with tolerable ease. When he once 
begins to amuse himself in this way, a great point is 
gained. Time will never hang heavy 'on his hands : 
he will make rapid progress in reading: much 
knowledge will be gained; his faculties will be 
drawn forth ; his taste will receive a right direction ; 
and good principles will take firmer hold of his 
mind. Care must be taken, however, that he does 
not read too much, or too rapidly. He may become 
a devourer of little books, and read every thing, and 
remember little. To counteract this tendency, and 
at the same time to assist in giving him right im- 
pressions from his reading, it will be useful to in- 
duce him, by a few leading questions, proposed with 
kindness and in a familiar manner, to relate the 
stories which have interested him. This practice, if 
not pressed too far, or suffered to wear the air of a 
lesson, will generally be an agreeable amusement ; 
and it will afford a parent great opportunities of 
discovering the turn of the child's mind, and of 
giving it a right direction. It will also be necessary 
to guard against bad effects from the short abstracts 
of histories, which, by acquainting him with the 
leading facts, diminish, at a future period, the inter- 
est of the histories themselves, and indispose him for 
going through their details. In order to avoid this 
evil, I am inclined to think, that such abstracts 
should be sparingly used. 

From the subjects of amusement, I must pass to 
one nearly allied to it ; and say a little on the way 
in which children of the same family should conduct 



156 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

themselves, each towards the other. — At the veiy 
early period of life now under consideration, play 
will occupy a large portion of the time not employed 
in the school-room ; and much happiness or vexa- 
tion, advantage or injury, must be derived from the 
dispositions which accompany it. When the spirits 
are high and the passions warm, and when the ob- 
jects in view are interesting, children will always be 
in danger of giving way to selfishness, and of falling 
into little quarrels ; and if the evil is suffered to pro- 
ceed, contradictions, criminations, misrepresenta- 
tions, falsehoods, hard names, threats, and perhaps 
blows will follow. If such scenes are often repeated, 
domestic love and harmony will give place to mu- 
tual dislike and alienation ; to tyranny in the elder, 
and to an abject or a bitter spirit in the younger, 
who, in their turn will often be disposed to repay 
themselves for their sufferings by domineering over 
those below them. If tyranny produces slavery, it 
also produces tyranny. What a scene does a family 
present, when under the influence of such passions, 
and addicted to such habits! What obstacles are 
opposed to meekness and gentleness, candor and 
forbearance : to the charity which " thinketh no evil;" 
which " suffereth long and is kind ;" which " beareth 
all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, en- 
dureth all things :" to the love of man, and therefore, 
to that which cannot exist without it, the love of 
God! "He who loveth not his brother whom he 
hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not 
seen?"— I dwell the more on this point, because 
many, who would be shocked by quarrels among 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 157 

their friends, see them take place among children 
with very little concern. Do not contentions spring 
in both cases from the same root ? And is not the 
fruit which they produce, however different in form 
and appearance, essentially of the same species? 
Surely then, the utmost pains should be taken to 
prevent and to heal differences, and to promote har- 
mony in a young family. It is by no means suf- 
ficient to silence a dispute by the voice of authority, 
and to keep down all outward expressions of disa- 
greement. The evil may yet remain in the heart, 
and rankle there in all its malignity. Persevering 
pains must be taken to eradicate it. A Christian 
parent on such occasions will show his child from 
what tempers quarrels arise, and make him sensible, 
by God's blessing, of the hatefulness of such tem- 
pers, and of their contrariety to the character of his 
God and Saviour. He will pourtray, in simple but 
glowing colors, the beauty of the opposite tempers, 
their tendency to conciliate affection and esteem in 
this world, and to promote that renewal in the Di- 
vine image which is indispensable to a union with 
Christ in the next. He will give additional force to 
these general topics by bringing into view all the 
claims to forbearance and to love which belong to 
the child with whom the quarrel has arisen; and 
the grief and the bad consequences which attend 
such family differences, and the happiness and the 
numerous advantages of mutual kindness. Nor 
will he rest satisfied, till he sees all the remains of 
ill-will give way, and the child brought into a frame 
of mind candidly and cordially to make every re- 



158 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

quisite acknowledgment to his play-fellow, and to 
desire a complete reconciliation. While the parent 
is bringing matters to this issue, he will be particu- 
larly careful to show, that although he is impartial, 
and can see in a true light the faults of both sides ; 
yet it becomes the child to think only of his own 
guilt, and to be anxious for forgiveness from God 
and man, and for the restoration of cordial har- 
mony. 

In the observations which have been made on 
quarrels, a domineering spirit has been slightly men- 
tioned as connected with them. But this spirit re- 
quires farther attention. It is the natural fruit of 
the two leading evils in our nature, selfishness and 
pride ; and therefore a parent must not be surprised 
to see it among his children. The elder will expect 
a compliance with their wishes and humors on the 
part of the younger ; the boys will exact obedience 
from the girls of nearly the same age ; and they 
will all be disposed to assert a superiority over some 
of the servants. I have seen a young urchin, in the 
nursery, play the tyrant with a high hand over his 
maid : and sometimes, little creatures, who should 
be practising submission and deference towards 
their elder relations, presume on the fondness of one 
or another of them — an aunt perhaps, or even a 
mother — and behave in a manner as injurious to 
themselves, as it is revolting to all who witness the 
unnatural scene. — I need not enlarge on this subject 
to make a Christian parent sensible of its impor- 
tance. He will recollect, that humility and sub- 
mission are the very foundations of religion, and of 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. I 53 

the whole range of religious tempers ; that there 
cannot be a greater solecism than a self-willed or a 
tyrannical Christian : that he who would be high in 
the kingdom of the lowly Saviour, must be " least 
of all, and servant of all ;" that the most impetuous 
and high-minded by nature of all the Apostles, when 
matured in his Christian course, said with unusual 
emphasis, " Yea, all of you be subject one to ano- 
ther, and be clothed with humility." He will there- 
fore by no means view this point with indifference : 
he will not leave things to find their own level, as 
the phrase is, in his young family : much less will he 
be dazzled by the appearance of spirit in a boy of 
activity and vigor, who aspires to be the master of 
all about him. He will earnestly inculcate mutual 
kindness and forbearance and condescension ; which 
all should be forward in exercising, but backward in 
requiring: — he will inculcate, that true fortitude 
and greatness of mind show themselves in nothing 
more clearly than in not being overcome of evil, 
but in overcoming evil with good : he will dwell on 
the beauty of a character which obtains such victo- 
ries — on the evil prevented and the happiness dif- 
fused by them — on their value in the sight of God — 
and on their important influence in promoting some 
faint resemblance of Him who, with all his meekness 
and lowliness, was a perfect pattern of holy forti- 
tude, and at length died for his enemies. These 
topics will furnish abundant matter for impressing 
the young mind ; and if that of the parent is in true 
harmony with them, they will be seldom used in 
vain. There will, however, be frequent recurrences 



160 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

of the fault in question, where the temper is san- 
guine and eager, and still more where there is a 
tendency to jealousy or passion. In such cases, a 
parent will find it of the highest importance to 
watch his own temper ; for equanimity and tender- 
ness in the use of his authority, joined to constant 
firmness, will do much towards repressing a do- 
mineering spirit in his children. These qualities 
will put to the blush the impatience, and violence 
and thirst of power, which may appear among his 
little ones, and lead them by sympathy to a better 
spirit : while the display of tempers at all similar to 
theirs, however it might terrify the culprits into in- 
stant submission, would leave a fire covered with 
ashes, but unsubdued, and ready to break forth again 
with undiminished force. 

Sometimes, a nursery is infected by a spirit of 
teasing in some of its inmates: a spirit which is 
often combined with much cunning, and delights in 
drawing a playfellow of a more unguarded nature 
into imprudences and excesses, and then in laying 
all the blame upon him. This mean habit must be 
strictly watched. It is the bane of every thing kind 
and generous, and leads to systematic deceit and 
falsehood. Hasty quarrels leave little of bad leaven 
behind them, compared with this cold blooded and 
odious practice. 

Selfishness and jealousy generally appear very 
early in children, and are amongst the most una- 
miable of all the bad dispositions inherited from 
our First Parents. Every mother can testify what 
reluctance children show by nature, to giving or 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION- 161 

lending their own playthings; how eagerly they 
grasp at those which belong to others ; how ear- 
nestly they contend for the first occupancy of such as 
are a sort of common property ; how ardently they 
long for any thing when another child is playing 
with it ; and how indifferent to it they often become 
as soon as he has relinquished it. And with respect 
to jealousy, the original bias is quite as striking. 
Even infants show it, when the women that have 
the charge of them bestow caresses on other chil- 
dren ; and in subsequent years, though the feeling- 
is known to be wrong, and its outward expression is 
in a measure restrained, yet from time to time evi- 
dent symptoms of it appear. 

It is needless to say, that such feelings should be 
repressed : they are not only evidently incompatible 
with the law of love, but are condemned even by 
the lax code of worldly morality. Let every parent 
be indefatigable in his endeavors to correct them: 
and let him constantly bear in mind, that merely to 
check outward appearances, will by no means be 
sufficient ; that the child who is subject to such tem- 
pers is conscious of their baseness, and naturally 
desirous of concealing them ; and that the object in 
view can be attained only by the eradication of the 
evil itself from the heart, and by the implantation of 
those Christian virtues which are opposed to it. This 
must be the work of the Holy Spirit, whose humble 
instrument the parent may be in cleansing and pre- 
paring the soil, and in sowing the good seed. 

The proper conduct of the two sexes, each to- 
wards the other, is of high importance, even at this 

p 2 



162 \ PRACTICAL VIEW 

early age. Boys are apt to feel their strength and 
hardihood, and not to treat girls as they ought ; and 
sometimes, I fear, girls presuming on their exemp- 
tion from that kind of treatment which impertinence 
experiences among boys, give to their tongues liber- 
ties which are subversive of family concord. In 
addition to the immediate evils flowing from this 
state of things, a foundation is laid for still greater 
in future life. In the whole range of associations 
between persons of different sexes, the consequent 
advantages extremely depend on the maintenance 
of fixed and habitual sentiments of mutual respect. 
Such sentiments are essential to delicacy and ten- 
derness in men, and to willing deference and sub- 
mission in women, and to cordial affection in nearer 
relations of life on both sides. How desirable, then, 
is it, that the foundations of right feelings and right 
conduct should be laid in early life : and how well 
employed is the attention by which this object is ef- 
fected ! It would be necessary, were the subsequent 
stages of education brought under review, to treat 
this subject with more particularity. 

And can we pass on to other topics without re- 
flecting for a few moments on the delightful specta- 
cle of a young family living together in harmony 
that is seldom interrupted by contentions, over- 
bearing conduct, rivalries, jealousies, or suspicions : 
a family in which contentment, love, generosity, 
mutual forbearance, and a spirit of mutual accom- 
modation, founded on Christian principles, are the 
prominent dispositions, and in which the perfor- 
mance of daily duties, and the promotion and par- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION*. 160 

ticipation of the general happiness, appear to be the 
leading occupation? Struck with the beauty of 
such a scene, one who was familiar with family 
discord exclaimed, " Behold how good and how 
pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" 
In such a family, adversity will seldom inflict a deep 
or lasting wound. Many sweet drops will find their 
way into the bitter cup : and in no long time tears 
will be succeeded by smiles, and a recollection of the 
trial may be attended, perhaps, with not more pain 
than pleasure. 

If we were to look round for the opposite picture, 
should we not find it presenting so many deep 
shades of depravity and wretchedness as to make 
us shudder at the view ? I will not give myself and 
my readers the pain of contemplating the scene 
more closely. Were we to do so, we should be all 
ready to exclaim with Isaiah, " There is no peace, 
saith my God, to the wicked !" and with St. James s 
" Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and 
every evil work." 

All the benefits of a useful education may be lost 
by acquaintance with children of bad habits. Such 
is the natural propensity to evil ; so great is the 
vivacity, the curiosity, the love of novelty, and the 
want of caution at a tender age : so lively is the 
sympathy, so active the spirit of imitation; that 
even occasional intercourse with dangerous com- 
panions will seldom fail to be highly injurious to 
children. Surely it is the part of wisdom to keep 
them as much as possible from moral contagion, 
till they have acquired some strength to resist it. 



164 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

if the weakness of man is such, that our Saviour, in 
giving a short Prayer for universal use in his church, 
saw fit to insert in it the petition, " Lead us not 
into temptation," how much must it be the duty of 
a Christian parent to preserve the little creatures 
committed to his care, whose good principles and 
habits are as yet unfixed and infirm, from a species 
of temptation most seductive and dangerous ? They 
must at length go forth into an evil world : but they 
ought to be prepared against its allurements by edu- 
cation, and introduced to them by degrees. At this 
early age, the tender plant should be preserved with 
care from the frosts, and storms, and droughts, 
which it will be better able to encounter at a future 
period, if guarded and sheltered while its stem is 
weak, and its roots are few and superficial. But 
besides the present danger from undesirable com- 
panions, a foundation is often laid for bad connec- 
tions in future life. The little play-fellows become 
attached, and wish to keep up their acquaintance in 
succeeding years : and unless the desire to discon- 
tinue the intimacy be mutual, either of them will 
find it difficult to break off the connection, however 
alive to the snares and dangers which attend it. 
The importance of this consideration is great ; for a 
man's steps through life usually depend not a little 
upon the nature of his early friendships. Nor is it 
from children only that danger is to be apprehended, 
but also from visitors of a more advanced age. 
Instead of strengthening the hands of the parent, 
they are too apt to flatter and humor the little ones ; 
to entertain them with foolish stories ; or to teach 



OP CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 165 

thdm to be impertinent, and to take improper liber- 
ties. More mischief is sometimes done in this way, 
in a few days, than the parent can undo in as many 
weeks. A single instance of bad example is dan- 
gerous. How destructive, then, must be its frequent 
repetition ; and how important must it be to guard 
the sacred work of education from such interrup- 
tions, and to make great sacrifices to effect this 
object ! Parents are too apt to make their own taste 
and convenience the great, if not the only, rule in 
the selection of their acquaintance. Now, ought 
not the safety and welfare of their children to enter 
at least equally into their consideration? Here, 
probably, is the most vulnerable point, and here 
ought provident caution and measures of defence to 
be most carefully employed. Parents frequently 
leave their home and their circle of acquaintance 
for a considerable time, in order to afford to their 
children an opportunity of acquiring accomplish- 
ments. Shall there be less interference with old 
habits, less change of situation, or of acquaintance, 
when the object is to shield them from the allure- 
ments of sin, and to give them a taste for the paths 
of true religion and virtue ? Are we not called upon 
to apply the spirit of the precept, to cut off the 
offending right hand and to pluck out the offending 
right eye, to the case before us, and resolutely, 
though with all mildness and courtesy, to avoid in 
our social intercourse whatever may be dangerous 
to our children ? It is true, that the question is one 
of comparison. Some risks to the young family 
must be incurred, if we would not do extreme via- 



166 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

lence to private friendship, to the ties of relationship* 
or to the duties of hospitality. But those who feel 
the importance of preserving their tender charge 
from the contagion of evil, will allow great weight 
in forming a decision to the circumstances which 
belong to that side of the question. With respect to 
forming new connections, there is seldom much diffi- 
culty ; but with regard to old associations, we shall 
often be caDed to introduce changes as to the fre- 
quency and duration of visits, and sometimes as to 
their continuance ; — changes which may appear un- 
kind to others, and will be extremely unpleasant to 
ourselves. Let it, however, be our earnest prayer 
and endeavor to do all in the spirit of Christian af- 
fection ; and this will greatly facilitate our object. I 
remember many years ago being struck by a little 
incident in a parish, where the incumbent, a man 
of most extraordinary Christian benignity, when in 
company with a clerical friend, rebuked in very 
plain terms one of his parishioners for gross misbe- 
haviour on a recent occasion. The reproof was so 
severe as to astonish his friend, w^ho declared, that 
if he had addressed one of his own flock in similar 
language, he should have expected an irreconcilea- 
ble breach. The clergyman of the parish answered 
him, with a gentle pat on the shoulder, and with a 
smile of Christian wisdom, " O, my friend, when 
there is love in the heart, you may say any thing.' 5 
And in like manner, I believe, when there is true and 
warm love in our hearts, and our measures are 
prompted by a calm and sincere sense of duty, we 
may do almost any thing without giving great of- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 1 1) T 

fence ; at least, without giving offence deep and 
lasting. 

After what has been said respecting servants, little 
needs to be added to guard parents against suffering 
a child to make them his companions. He should 
always treat them with kindness, but should be led 
not to amuse himself with their society in his play- 
hours. This remark applies with particular force to 
the men-servants, who will generally be much more 
dangerous to children than the maids. But, with 
very few exceptions, both the one and the other, if 
treated by the children as favorites, will be apt to 
flatter and humor them, and teach them to be guilty 
of little deceits, and to be fond of self-indulgence. 
Vulgarity of manners and of language, though the 
most obvious, is perhaps the least of the evils to be 
apprehended from such companions. 



168 A PRACTICAL VIEW 



CHAP. IX. 

Hardihood. — Moderate Habits. — Artificial Hardships. — 
Moderation favorable to Elevation of Character. — 
Rules. — Preparation for Prayer. — Self -Examination. 
— Prayer. — How long boys should be kept under do- 
mestic Education. — Preparation for Schools. — Gover- 
nesses. 

In a system such as I have recommended, marked 
by the absence of harshness and violence on the 
part of the parents and of contests and collisions 
among the children, there may appear to be some 
danger of a want of the hardihood requisite in the 
troubles and disappointments that will be met with 
in life. But though the circumstances which in 
general tend most powerfully to promote this quality 
are excluded by our plan of education, yet, under 
the guidance of a parent who turns his attention to 
this point, those which remain will be sufficient for 
the attainment of our object. Even in the best- 
regulated families, troubles will arise among the 
children. The loss of a play-thing, a personal acci- 
dent, a lesson ill learned ; above all, a hope disap- 
pointed; — all these, and numberless other circum- 
stances of constant recurrence, will checquer their 
happiness, and accustom them to difficulties and 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 169 

trials, which it will be the parent's endeavor to con- 
vert into lessons of patient endurance, if not of 
cheerful resignation. 

But there is another course, perfectly compatible 
with that just mentioned, of high importance for 
arming the young mind against the difficulties and 
troubles of life : this is, to accustom children to mo- 
deration, and to teach them from the first to do as 
much as may be for themselves, instead of depend- 
ing on others for their conveniences and comforts. 
Moderate habits have been celebrated as sources of 
happiness by Mr. Paley, and with the felicity with 
which he handles most topics unconnected with his 
erroneous principle (as I deem it) of generous expe- 
diency. It is, therefore, perfectly unnecessary for 
me to enlarge on the value of such habits.* It is 
apparent, how contented with a little those are pre- 
pared to be, whose habits lead them to look for 
little ; and how large a portion of the trials of those 
who are used to flattery, luxury, and self-indulgence, 
will pass over their heads. The want of delicate 
food and a soft bed will not be felt by a child who 
has been used to plain fare and a mattrass; and 
rising early in the winter will be no hardship to one 
who has been always accustomed to it. The habit 
also of shifting for themselves (to use a homely but 
expressive phrase) will not only stimulate the ac- 
tivity of children, and call forth their ingenuity, and 
make them more pleased with little acquisitions, as 
fruits of their own skill and exertions, but it will 

* Vide Moral Philosophy, chapter on Human Happiness. 



170 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

powerfully tend to preserve them from sources of 
discontent. There is no bound to the unreasonable 
wishes of those who are taught to think it the busi- 
ness of others to obtain for them what they wish. 
They will often appear to wish almost solely for the 
sake of giving trouble. But whether they really do 
so or not, the unfortunate person who is expected to 
satisfy this immeasurable capacity of wishing, will 
be extremely likely to be of that opinion, and exe- 
cute the unpleasant task with no little dissatisfac- 
tion, if not with ill-humor. These dispositions will 
be caught by the children, and add greatly to the 
discontent excited by their preposterous and unsatis- 
fied wants. This, I conceive, is one leading cause 
of the unhappiness of the children, and the unfeeling 
conduct of the female attendants, so often observa- 
ble when children of rank walk out in the parks in 
London. How different is the situation of children 
who are taught to depend upon themselves as much 
as possible for their comforts and pleasures ! Their 
wishes will be moderate and reasonable ; for they 
will be bounded by their sense of their own ability 
to supply them, of which they will form a far better 
estimate than of the ability of others. What they 
do obtain will be highly grateful to them ; and when 
they fail to obtain any thing, they will impute the 
failure to themselves; and this circumstance will 
serve to stifle complaint, or afford the parent an op- 
portunity of showing its absurdity. The propriety 
of the system here recommended will be readily ac- 
knowledged by children. They will easily under- 
stand that we ought to interfere as little as may be 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 171 

with the happiness of others by causing them trou- 
ble ; and that indifference to the ease and comfort of 
those about us argues a want of feeling which must 
be hateful to our kind and compassionate Saviour. 

Natural methods of promoting moderation, pa- 
tience, and a due measure of hardihood, will be 
found amply sufficient, without having recourse to 
unnatural and artificial austeries and sufferings. 
These I should exceedingly disapprove, though I 
fear they are sometimes found in the plans of edu- 
cation adopted by good parents. Surely they are 
calculated to sour the temper of the child, and wea- 
ken filial affection. What God sends, we all learn 
to bear more cheerfully than what is wrought upon 
us (as we are apt to think) by the mere will of man. 
Besides, when God is clearly the author of the event, 
its rigors are tempered and softened in various ways. 
In judgment he remembers mercy. But when it 
proceeds more from man, even though man does 
nothing without the Divine permission, it bears 
marks of his short-sightedness and violence. Com- 
pare the sufferings inflicted by the Inquisition, with 
those which proceed from natural distempers. Well 
might David, when allowed a choice of evils, say, 
"Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for very 
great are his mercies ; but let me not fall into the 
hand of man." 

The habits which have been mentioned, besides 
preparing children to meet the difficulties and bear 
the evils of life, will give the mind a certain eleva- 
tion. Self-indulgence leads to frivolity ; enervates 
the soul ; pampers the lower, and chills and de- 



172 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

presses the higher, part of our nature. Our blessed 
Saviour said, " If any man will come after me, let 
him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow 
me." He well knew how incompatible self-indul- 
gence is with the recovery of divine image in the 
soul. How can liberality, magnanimity, cheerful 
contentment under evils, and moderation and spi- 
rituality of mind in the midst of unforeseen pros- 
perity, be expected from the self-indulgent man? 
His aims will be low, his conduct marked by mean- 
ness ? and he will cling to this earth, the only source 
of his pleasures. If we wish this picture to be re- 
versed, we must omit no means of instilling, by the 
Divine blessing, an opposite spirit into our offspring. 
Rules are necessary in every young family, and, 
perhaps, for no purpose more particularly than for 
the promotion of self-denial and moderation. They 
should be simple and definite, and not needlessly 
numerous; for there never ought to be room for 
question, when one is broken, whether it could be 
easily understood and remembered. But rules 
should always be considered as so connected with 
the principles from which they flow, that they must 
be interpreted rather largely, and regarded as ex- 
tending to every thing manifestly of the same kind 
with that which is expressed by their letter. All 
cunning methods of evading them, and all special 
pleading as to their meaning must be decidedly 
suppressed. A child must be early taught to look to 
those general principles and motives, which are the 
guides of the advanced Christian ; and by no means 
to consider every thing allowable which is not for- 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 173 

bidden by a specific rule, and nothing as a duty 
which a rule does not prescribe. In laying down 
rules, the parent will accommodate them to age and 
sex, and in a measure also to individual character. 
He must take care that they shall not only be rea- 
sonable, but that, if it be possible, they shall be seen 
and felt to be so by those who are to obey them. It 
is obvious, therefore, that they should not be formed 
hastily, and much less when a fault has just been 
committed by a child, and the mind of the parent 
may be less serene than is usual. When estab- 
lished, they should not be lightly changed. But it is 
better to change or annul a rule, than to wink at 
the breach of it ; — a mode of proceeding which must 
produce the worst effects on the principles and 
habits of the child, and must undermine the au- 
thority of the parent. 

My readers will expect that I should say some- 
thing on the subject of prayer ; but, important as 
that subject is, I am desirous first of adverting to a 
subject perhaps still more important, — the prepara- 
tion for prayer. I imagine that coldness of heart 
and wandering of thought in prayer proceed more 
from a want of due preparation than from any 
wrong system in prayer itself. If this is the case 
with persons of mature age, it is likely to be much 
more so with children, whose minds are so lively 
and volatile, and whose self-command and habits of 
of piety are so weak and imperfect. Consider what 
it is to make a child pass immediately from its play 
to its prayers, with scarcely the interval of a mo- 
ment to quiet its mind, and with no endeavor on the 



174 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

part of the parent to bring its soul into a frame fit 
for addressing its Almighty Maker and Redeemer. 
And yet this case, I fear, or one very like to it, is not 
uncommon. Surely this practice must be offensive 
to the Lord of heaven and earth, and lead the child 
to look on prayer, not as an exercise of pious affec- 
tions, but as little more than the decent repetition of 
a good form of words. At times, when the mind is 
in a more favorable state for prayer, it is often 
scarcely, if at all, raised to God, because the atten- 
tion has not been called to the nature of the duty to 
be performed. A few words from a parent, before 
the child falls on his knees, would frequently give, 
under God's blessing, the spirit of prayer to a ser- 
vice which may appear likely otherwise to be little 
better than a mere ceremony. How deserving, then, 
is this point of a parent's attention ! Our Liturgy 
sets before him an excellent example, in the address 
preceding the Confession ; the object of which is to 
prepare the congregation for the service which fol- 
lows. 

But another most important preparation for prayer 
remains to be mentioned. This is, self-examination ; 
— an exercise of the soul indispensable, I think, to 
every Christian, and requiring to be begun at a very 
early period. Of course, its circumstances must de- 
pend on the age of the child, but its substance ought 
by no means to be omitted. A very young child 
(one of two or three years old) cannot be expected 
to examine himself; but the parent must remind 
him of one or two faults, or one or two victories over 
pressing temptation on very recent occasions, and 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION, 175 

lead him to right feelings respecting them. By de- 
grees, if this call to recollection is regularly prac- 
tised once or twice a-day, the exercise, though ex- 
tremely short at first, will become a little longer, and 
the child's feelings will be drawn into the habit, first, 
of being more easily led into the right course, and, 
after a while, of taking it of their own accord. 
Next, the child will begin himself to recollect what 
his conduct has been in some few leading points, 
and that with less and less help from the parent : 
and so he will proceed, till at length he will extend 
his view to more points, and require no assistance. 
In all the stages of this process, great caution should 
be employed not to fatigue or harrass : and it will 
be better to advance too gradually than too rapidly : 
to do too little, rather than too much. It is also ex- 
tremely important, that this incipient religious exer- 
cise should be made to wear as gentle and amiable 
an aspect as is compatible with the holy dispositions 
which should accompany it. As it is one which, 
after a time, the child is to carry on in silence, and 
solely by his own reflections, if he becomes at all 
disgusted with it, it will either be neglected entirely 
or performed surperficially and without advantage. 
Let the tenderness and patience, no less than the 
persevering assiduity, of the parent be in any tolera- 
ble degree proportioned to the high importance of 
the habit which he wishes to see established, and 
there is the fairest prospect of success. The object 
should be, to lead the child to think over the princi- 
pal events of the preceding day ; to recollect his 
faults with contrition, and his blessings with thank- 



176 k PRACTICAL VIEW 

fulness : and then, to consider a little the day which 
is commencing, and with a disposition to behave 
well through it — to avoid past faults, and to be 
grateful for expected mercies. Every care should 
be taken to infuse cordiality and piety into this 
course ; and to guard it against every shade of in- 
sincerity, by turning the eye of the child from the 
parent to God, and from outward appearance to the 
heart. Every thing should be accommodated to the 
mind and habits of a child, and made to wear an 
easy and a simple dress. Even the name is of con- 
sequence : and if the long term, " self-examination," 
can be made to give way to one more intelligible, 
there will be an advantage in the change. The time 
preferred by me for this exercise is just before the 
morning private prayers of each child. Even after 
the child is able to examine himself without assis- 
tance, the watchful eye of a parent will be wanted 
to see that he in the main keeps his thoughts rightly 
employed, and does not fall into a habit of letting 
them wander to things of a different nature from 
those which ought to engage the mind. A parent 
may, from time to time, inform himself, or rather 
herself, how far the child has been engaged in the 
appointed duty, by asking him what has been the 
subject of his thoughts. Here, however, great deli- 
cacy is requisite, and the inquiry must be sparingly 
repeated, lest it should lead to falsehood and hypo- 
crisy. If the thoughts appear to wander, the exer- 
cise, though always very short at the age under 
consideration, must generally be shortened, and a 
right direction must be given to it, by suggesting, 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 177 

before the child begins to think, the general subjects 
(two or three only) on which they should be em- 
ployed. When there happens to have been any 
thing very remarkable in the child's conduct, it is 
always advisable to point its attention to the fact for 
two or three succeeding days. 

The great advantage of the practice which I am 
recommending, not only as a preparation for prayer, 
but on other accounts, is apparent. As a prepara- 
tion for prayer, it must produce, with the Divine 
blessing, the most salutary effect in spiritualizing 
the mind, and turning the thoughts to faults, and 
wants, and weaknesses; and also to motives for 
gratitude and praise. In other respects, it must 
produce, in a measure, the benefits which are the 
fruits of holy self-examination in adults. It must 
promote self-knowledge, watchfulness, and a tender 
conscience. Thus, we may humbly hope, that God 
will render it an important barrier against the in- 
roads of evil, and a guardian of all that is good. 
On what vantage-ground does a parent stand, when, 
on observing a fault, the child can be reminded how 
much at variance it is with his resolutions and his 
prayers, after recollecting, in a former self-examina- 
tion, a similar fault; and what pain the present 
transgression will cause him when he reflects upon 
it at the next season for reviewing the incidents of 
the day, and saying his prayers ! Instances of good 
conduct will give rise also to very useful observa- 
tions resting on the same foundation. Children are 
so volatile, so eager in their pursuits, so forgetful of 
good lessons, and so disinclined to self-denial, that it 



178 



A PRACTICAL VIEW 



is of the highest importance to introduce as early as 
possible a habit of religious thought and recollec- 
tion at stated times. Is not, then, self-examination 
particularly desirable for children; and ought pa- 
rents to think any pains ill-bestowed which may 
promote it ? And I fully believe, from experience, 
that, if their endeavors are well-directed and perse- 
vering, and, above all, conducted in a right spirit, 
they will not be vised in vain. 

The prayers for young children should be very 
short, and extremely simple. As soon as an infant 
can lisp, its mother will let it kneel in her lap, and 
repeat after her a very few words, addressed to God, 
after it has seen its little brothers and sisters at their 
prayers. It will like to follow their example. By 
degrees it will require less and less assistance in of- 
fering up its little prayer, and that prayer will be, in 
a very small degree, extended. The mother's lead- 
ing object will be, to initiate her tender charge in 
feelings of reverence and piety while so employed. 
These feelings may be instilled, while the ideas con- 
veyed to the infant by the words it pronounces are 
yet very indistinct and imperfect ; but the impression 
on its heart will be the blessed work of its Sanctifier. 
and be acceptable to its God and Saviour. After 
some time, recourse may be had to more regular 
forms of prayer. Those for children, by Dr. Watts, 
are very good, and different prayers are furnished 
to suit different ages. It is highly desirable that the 
child should pronounce his prayers aloud, in the 
presence of a parent, whenever that mode can be 
made convenient: and, at other times, of some 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 179 

proper person; and attention and a devout spirit 
should be diligently cultivated, and every thing 
which may disturb the thoughts should be carefully 
kept at a distance. The state of the mind, when 
engaged in prayer, will chiefly depend on its general 
habits, and on previous preparation; but the se- 
curing of regularity, external decency, and pro- 
priety in the act itself, is a point of no small moment. 
Let a parent reflect on the infinite importance of 
communion with God at every age, and the incalcu- 
lable influence which right impressions, and the com- 
mencement of right habits on this point, from the 
earliest period may have on future life, and he will 
be far from thinking the care which has been recom- 
mended greater than the object demands. From 
what evil will he guard his little ones, if not from 
the evil of trifling with their God ? And what habit 
will he be anxious to give them, if not the habit of 
humble dependence and devout adoration in ad- 
dressing that Being who is the Author of all their 
blessings, and in whose hands is their future lot for 
all eternity ? 

I cannot close my remarks, without a few words 
as to the length of time during which it is desirable 
that boys should continue under their father's roof. 
This is a question of expediency ; and its decision 
must depend much on circumstances. The health 
of the child, the health, leisure, and ability of the 
parents, and various other considerations, will have 
their weight in determining it. In general, however, 
I am disposed to think, that it is best to prolong 
domestic education until a boy is nine or ten years 



180 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

old, and that it is seldom desirable to continue it 
much longer. Till that period, a moderate share of 
knowledge and ability will enable parents to educate 
their son, and the mother will be likely to have a 
due ascendancy over him. But at the age which I 
have mentioned, in order to keep pace with other 
boys, he ought to begin to employ a large propor- 
tion of his school-hours in studying Latin ; and his 
father will seldom have leisure to superintend that 
study regularly and sufficiently ; and, what is more 
important, his mother will generally find that he has 
become too large and robust to be easily managed 
in the father's absence, and that the welfare of the 
boy, if not her own comfort, requires that he should 
be placed in other hands. Scarcely any thing can 
be so mischievous to a boy, as to be master of an 
individual, whom, in the regular course of his edu- 
cation, he is bound to obey ; but the evil is extremely 
aggravated when that individual is a parent. When 
this shameful and unnatural scene is presented, how 
totally reversed are those provisions which the Di- 
vine Being has made for the progress of children in 
knowledge, and in right dispositions, and for the 
usefulness and the comfort of parents ! We know 
in what abomination a rebellious son was held under 
the Jewish law ; and certainly he is not less offen- 
sive to correct judgment and right feeling under the 
Christian system. 

In such a case, the parents are seldom blameless, 
especially if it occurs when the boy is young. The 
father should exert himself with vigor to support the 
mother's authority ; and she ought to consider it a 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 181 

Christian duty to support her own, and avoid those 
weaknesses, from whatever amiable sources they 
may spring, which tend to undermine it. There is 
a silent dignity about a woman who does not yield 
to them ; and a son uncorrupted by bad companions 
can seldom resist its influence, and conduct himself 
towards such a mother with disrespect. 

In families where a considerable share of the 
school business devolves on a governess, it is unfit 
that, when a boy is above her management, he 
should continue to be her scholar ; and, if a better 
arrangement cannot be made for his education, he 
must go to school. 

Little needs be said on the advantage of keeping a 
boy at home, while he can be duly educated and 
properly managed. This course is highly desirable 
for the purpose of strengthening his principles, and 
forming his habits. I have already said something 
on the high importance of laying a sound and broad 
foundation in these great points, during the con- 
tinuance of domestic education. A parent who feels 
on this subject as he ought will be anxious to obtain 
as many of the first years of life as may be for the 
perfecting, establishing, strengthening, settling that 
foundation. He will bear in mind the original indis- 
position of man to holiness, his levity, — his lively 
impressions from present objects, his neglect of fu- 
ture consequences, and his dislike of a persevering 
opposition to the natural bent of his own feelings. 
He will also bear in mind the force of the tempta- 
tions which abound in that world (and every school 
is a branch of it) into which his son must soon be 

R 



182 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

sent ; and he will be far more inclined to regret that 
the period most favorable for paternal instruction is 
necessarily so limited, than he will be disposed to 
abridge it. 

Towards the close of that period, a boy must be 
prepared for the new course of things which awaits 
him at school, and be cautioned in a more particular 
manner against some of its leading temptations. It 
would be necessary to enter into details on these 
points, if the next period in education, that which is 
passed by boys at school, were under consideration. 
Suffice it here to say, that in his lessons he must be 
taught to look for less assistance, and to accommo- 
date himself to his task, rather than expect it to be 
accommodated to him. He must also learn to sub- 
mit to general rules, even when they bear hard upon 
him ; and to expect very few exceptions in his favor. 
Kindness to those who are less than himself, and 
patience and good humor under provocations and 
ill-treatment, must be earnestly inculcated. But, 
above all, he must be warned against falsehood and 
deceit, those flagrant vices of schools ; and increased 
diligence must be used to strengthen him against 
temptations of every kind. At the same time, the 
bonds of filial affection and filial confidence must be 
strengthened, if it be possible, as barriers against 
evil, or as conductors, under God, to the right path 
again, when he has strayed from it. 

No distinction has been made in the foregoing re- 
marks between the education of boys and that of 
girls. During the greater part of the period under 
consideration, the modes pursued with the different 



OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. 183 

sexes should be, I think, very similar. In the last 
year or two, the boys and the girls will begin to 
separate both in their studies and in their amuse- 
ments. It is not necessary to be more particular on 
this subject. In all that regards by far the most im- 
portant part of education, the training of them, by 
God's help, for Himself and a blessed eternity, the 
system will be the same for both. 

In many, and especially in large families, educa- 
cation cannot be properly conducted without a go- 
verness. In the choice of one, good principles, good 
sense, good temper, sobriety and firmness of mind, 
and competent knowledge, are the first requisites ; 
ornamental qualifications hold a second place. Un- 
fortunately, the generality of young women, who 
offer themselves for that situation, are much better 
furnished with showy accomplishments than with 
more solid acquirements; and, for this and other 
reasons, parents must not raise their expectations 
high when they take a governess. Much, however, 
of the disappointment which they too often expe- 
rience on that occasion, may be owing to them- 
selves. If they do not make fair and charitable 
allowances for her defects, and conduct themselves 
towards her in a manner respectful, kind, and 
friendly, and thus entitle themselves to her regard 
and confidence ; and if they do not make a right 
use of their influence, by leading her gently and 
gradually into such methods of education as they 
approve ; they must not wonder if they find great 
evils in the school-room. How can they expect a 
very important and delicate trust to be well exe- 



184 A PRACTICAL VIEW 

cuted, when they do not show proper attentions to 
their agent, nor put her into the way of adopting 
the course which will meet their wishes ? How can 
they hope that she, a stranger, will proceed with 
fidelity, tenderness, and zeal, in spite of the difficul- 
ties which she will experience among her pupils, 
when they, the parents, do not exert themselves to 
lessen those difficulties, and to smooth her course? 
How can they hope, that their children will find in 
her a portion of parental affection and solicitude, 
when she has found in themselves little support and 
friendship, though standing in so much need of 
them? Let parents take a different course, and 
they may see a very different result. They may 
then find how active are the exertions of affection, 
how large the returns made by gratitude, and how 
great is the docility and how warm the sympathy of 
a young woman, thrown on their care, and beyond 
her hopes, finding in them, as it were, second pa- 
rents. — However, I would caution those who employ 
a governess, in the midst of their kindness to re- 
member what place she holds in their family, and to 
what situation in life she must return when she 
leaves it. They are bound to avoid any line of con- 
duct which may place her above her station. To 
act otherwise would be disqualifying her for the 
duties of the school-room, and doing her a serious 
injury. They ought to consider eminently good 
conduct on her part as laying them under an obli- 
gation never to be forgotten. 



APPENDIX 



No. I. 



[extracted from the CHRISTIAN OBSERVER FOR JANUARY, 

1813.] 

We are the parents of several young children, and are anxious 
for their salvation. Not long since, one of our little boys went to 
visit a very kind friend, who has been remarkably successful in 
the pious education of his family. We were desirous to have our 
friends opinion of our son. His leading observation was, that 
the child did not show a cordial concern for his faults. Feeling 
the justice of this sentiment, and our own inexperience, we re- 
quested him to tell us at length how, under God's grace, this con- 
cern might be best excited ; which drew from him the first of the 
following letters. We still expressed doubts on the subject of 
correction by the rod, whether it should ever be used at all, or 
whether it should ever be used where some contrition has been 
already produced by affectionate and serious conversation. This 
procured us the benefit of the second letter. Having found these 
letters of considerable use in the religious education of our chil- 
dren, and having obtained permission from our truly Christian 
friend to make them public, we beg to send them to you, in the 
hope that you will judge them well worthy of insertion in the 
Christian Observer. 

R 2 



186 APPENDIX. 

" My dear Sir, 

" The subject on which you request my sentiments is 
one of the most important in education. Without a cordial con- 
cern for a fault, no sound foundation is laid for its cure. Even if 
the parent looked no farther than to worldly principles, to mere 
prudence and fair character, this would be true. It is eminently 
and obviously true, when the reference is to religion, and to God 
who searches the heart. Without this cordial concern there can 
be no repentance, and without repentance there can be neither 
forgiveness nor the Divine blessing ; and therefore all must be 
unsound, even if outward reformation be obtained. I ought to 
apologize for repeating truths so familiar to you, as applied to 
adults, if not also as applied to children, to whom they are equally 
applicable. It is their very high and fundamental importance, 
and their not meeting with due attention in education, even from 
very many religious parents, which induces me to state them. I 
too frequently see parents make the reformation of their children's 
faults a matter in which religion is scarcely, if at all, referred to ; 
and little or no appeal is directed to the heart and conscience. 
Thus morality comes to be considered as consisting entirely (or 
nearly so) in mere outward observances : God, Christ, and the 
Holy Ghost, are little brought into view in the course of the 
child's daily conduct ; and he gets into the habit of being satis- 
fied with himself, if he does nothing contrary to rule, though his 
motives may not have been holy, and his heart may have been in 
a very indifferent state. You could describe to me, better than I to 
yotf, the evils of such a state, and the hardness of conscience, and 
other future miseries threatened by it. 

"The system here has been, carefully to counteract these 
evils, both present and future, by doing our best to lead our chil- 
dren to have God in all their thoughts, and to habitual daily 
repentance and tenderness of conscience before him ; — in short, 
to that frame of mind, making proper allowance for their age, 
which is required in all of us by our Heavenly Father. To this 
end we always endeavor, in correcting a fault in a child, to have 
a right religious view of it, and to give the child, partly by pre 
cept and illustration, and partly by sympathy (for 'si vis me flere 



APPENDIX. 



187 



dolendum est primum ipsi tibi,'* is eminently applicable in this 
case,) a right feeling respecting it, as an offence against his Maker, 
Redeemer, and Sanctifier. It is too common, as you know, to cut 
short the notice of a fault. It is strongly blamed — perhaps the 
child undergoes some punishment — perhaps he is threatened with 
severe punishment if he repeats the fault ; or perhaps he is re- 
quired to say, that he is sorry, and will not repeat it. The parent 
is peremptory, the child is frightened, and all is over in a very 
short time, without any useful impression on the child, except 
that he is less disposed to commit the outward act which has 
drawn upon him these animadversions. Mrs. — — and I, on 
the contrary, endeavor to make every fault of our children to be 
felt by them as an offence against God, arid a sin to be repented 
of, and upon repentance to be pardoned through our Saviour. We 
therefore carefully guard against the child's thinking that his fault 
is reproved as a personal offence against ourselves. We talk to 
him solemnly, but tenderly ; feeling and expressing much concern 
that he has offended God ; contrasting his conduct with the love 
of God ; painting the pleasure with which his holiness would be 
received in heaven, particularly by Christ, and the pain which 
his sin has occasioned. In short, we talk with him, mutatis mu- 
tandis^ as with a friend with whom we tenderly sympathise, 
while we feel that we have a right to command. We temper the 
terrors of the Lord with representations of his love and mercy ; 
and we persevere in this course, till the child's mind appears 
humble and softened, and brought into such a penitent frame as 
God looks upon with favor. The whole often ends in a short 
affectionate prayer of half a minute, or a minute, for pardon and 
grace, dictated by ourselves, as far as the child's own thoughts 
will not of themselves supply it. This process is never hurried 
over, nor is it ever brought to a conclusion before the end appears 
to be attained ; as nothing can be more important, so nothing is 
suffered to supersede or interrupt it. It is taken up very early, 
and is always accommodated in its different parts to the years 
and knowledge of the child. It appears formidable on paper ; 

* If you wish me to be affected, you must first be affected yourself. 
t Varying where variation is necessary. 



188 APPENDIX. 

but it is surprising how short, and even pleasant it is, in all com- 
mon cases, through its being commenced so early and habitually 
practised. It has almost banished punishment from our house, 
and has brought with it various other good consequences. I need 
not say, that considerable discrimination and discretion must be 
exercised by the parent. Religion must be made to wear an 
amiable and endearing, as well as an awful, countenance. The 
bruised reed must not be broken ; the feelings must not be excited 
beyond what nature will bear ; and if a storm of feeling arises, it 
must be allayed without any improper indulgence, destructive of 
the effect to be produced. You will see, that sagacity and self- 
command are wanted on the part of the parent, for which he 
cannot hope, if he do not maintain an unruffled mind. 

" There are some necessary concomitants of this system, which, 
were they not so, would be recommended by their own intrinsic 
importance. Holy things must always be approached in a holy 
way. The Bible must never be read with levity or indifference. 
Hymns, and the Catechism, must never be jabbered over, n r re- 
peated with that hard tone and manner which bespeaks an un- 
consciousness of their sacred nature. Religion must practically 
be made the main-spring of life ; and she must not only be so, 
but appear to be so, without departing from her native modesty, 
and without losing dignity by the frequency of her introduction? 
or by the kindness with which she is invested. You will be 
aware that difficulties, and very great ones, must be encountered, 
where, instead of habits of proper feeling and repentance on com- 
mitting faults having been formed from infancy, other habits have 
been formed. These difficulties are in their kind the same which 
you clergymen experience in bringing adults to repentance. In 
their degree they will be greater or less according to circum- 
stances. — I had a child here for several months, some time ago, 
whom I could never bring to quite a satisfactory state of mind on 
his committing faults ; owing, as I believe, to the errors of his 
previous education. With our own children we have never ex- 
perienced very formidable difficulties, God be praised ! His is 
the work ; but he makes great use of the instrumentality of 
parents, and gives, as I believe, an especial blessing to a well- 
directed early education 

" I remain, &c '' 



APPENDIX. 189 

" My dear Sir, 

" As ours is quite a Sunday subject, I will employ a 
little of to-day in giving you my thoughts upon it. 

" With respect to punishments, our practice has been very gener- 
ally to omit the employment of them altogether, when the child was 
brought to real repentance ; but at any rate to confine their use 
on such occasions to strong cases, and then to employ restraints, 
and not corporal correction. But we have endeavored to recal 
the child's mind to faults, from time to time, in a solemn but ten- 
der manner, that they might not slip out of his remembrance ; 
and especially at prayer-time, and other seasons when it appeared 
likely to be done with most effect. 

" We have been led to this course, partly by feeling ; but it has 
accorded with our principles, as I will endeavor to explain. 

" The great and leading use of punishments (in the case of 
children at least) seems to be, to humble the mind at the time of 
a fault, and prepare it for repentance ; or, when inflicted after a 
fault, to impress the fault more on the memory, that repentance 
for it may be more abiding : and, in both cases, to deter from a 
repetition of the crime, through fear of a repetition of the suffer- 
ing. Now though it has these uses, it has also evils attending it. 
The parent's temper is apt to be ruffled in inflicting it, and the 
child's to be soured and hardened in receiving it ; and the fear of 
it is apt to lead to concealment and deceit in a child, and also apt 
to turn his eyes too much from God to man, and from the spiritual 
to the temporal consequences of crimes. * Perfect love casteth 
out fear ;' and one would wish to lead a child towards that state 
as fast as may be, and to foster and cherish the love of Christ, as 
the great constraining principle in his bosom. Endeavors to this 
end will be not a little counteracted by a system which draws his 
mind habitually, on the commission of faults, to human punish- 
ments. 

" Viewing things in this light, we look on punishment as never 
to be employed in Christian education, when it can be avoided ; 
and we think we have found, that, under the system I described 
in my last letter, for promoting true repentance in a child, it may 
be avoided with advantage in almost all cases, when, under that 



190 APPENDIX. 

system, by the blessing of God, the mind is become ingenuous 
and the conscience tender. In cases of obstinacy, whether it 
takes the form of violence or sullenness — if candor and kindness, 
and solemn but calm representations, and a countenance and 
manner in the parent the very reverse of that of the child, will 
not in some moderate time produce the desired effect on the child's 
mind (which they commonly will, after the system in question has 
been followed for some time in a family) — punishment must be 
employed : ' Debellare superbos.'* But even in this case it 
should be sparing and moderate, and inflicted gradually, so as to 
give time to the child to recover itself from its fit of perverseness ; 
and when its temper is altered, and bends to the yoke, and gives 
place to contrition and docility, the punishment should cease. It 
is to the full as necessary, in a system under a God of love, the 
leading principles of which therefore should be love and mercy, 
to bear in mind the former part of the poet's line, l Parcere sub- 
jectis,'t as the latter part which I before quoted. Then is the 
time for winning the child, by holy kindness, tempered by that 
mild solemnity which the occasion will inspire, to openness and 
candor, and a deep, but not an agonizing, impression of the evil 
of sin, and of the love of Christ and his readiness to forgive. 
Consider how very ill a continuation of punishment would har- 
monise with the promotion of those filial aspirations to God and 
the Redeemer. How would it operate in our own case ? And 
how much more likely would it be to operate ill in that of a child, 
who, from his tender years, is so much more liable to have his 
mind and feelings engrossed by any thing which, like punishment, 
makes a strong impression on his outward senses ? 

" I have mentioned the effect which the expectation of punish- 
ment is likely to have on a child's communications with his 
parent. It may be worth while to enlarge a little on that point. I 
am sure we agree in placing the highest value on an affectionate 
and confidential openness in children towards their parents. It is 
not only highly gratifying to the parents, and the natural ex- 
pression, and pledge, and nurse of filial esteem and love ; but it 

* To humble the proud. t To spare the submissive 



APPENDIX. 191 

is most closely allied to the promotion of all that is honest and 
ingenuous in the child, and with the checking and subduing of all 
that is wrong, not only in his habits, but in his disposition. I 
need not go into detail on these points. All that I could say will 
present itself to your mind and feelings. I will merely draw your 
attention to two opposite pictures, which your own imagination 
will present to you in sufficiently vivid colors : the one, of a 
child who feels his parents to be his bosom friends — his wise but 
tender and sympathising guides through the snares and delusions 
of life ; who, from feeling, as well as from a sense of duty, flies 
to them to disburthen his mind, both in his joy and in his sorrow ; 
who, in his intercourse with them, endeavors to follow in that 
Christian path in which they lead the way, to be of one heart and 
mind with them — and to * keep the unity of the spirit in the 
bond of peace,' as with all his fellow-Christians, so emphatically 
with his first, best, and dearest friends, his parents. Contrast this 
sketch with what is too often the scene even in religious families ; 
— distrust on the part of the parent ; reserve, and perhaps aliena- 
tion, on the part of the child, who, instead of sympathising (in 
the large sense of the word^ with his parents, hankers after com- 
panions of a very different sort, and enjoys himself most when 
farthest from parental observation. I have drawn these outlines 
strongly ; but I am sure you must have observed different shades 
of these characters among your neighbors, as you have passed 
through life. 

" To return to the main subject, from which I have rather di- 
verged : — After having described the course I should take in a 
case of obstinacy or passion at first, and repentance afterwards, 
you are prepared to hear, that, in a case which began with candor 
and repentance, I would by no means punish, except in the way 
of some restriction, which should be recommended rather by 
prudence as a precaution, than be of the nature of a punishment ; 
or perhaps, by exacting some moderate sacrifice (such as staying 
in the house for some hours) for the purpose of preventing the 
mind's too soon exchanging salutary impressions for youthful 
levity. But whatever I might do in this way, I would take es- 
pecial care to avoid every thing austere and forbidding in my 



192 APPENDIX. 

countenance and manner, though these would necessarily be 
marked by serious but tender and affectionate pity and concern. I 
think I find that this course of proceeding answers the purpose of 
preventing the affair from sliding too soon out of a child's mind, 
while it secures his affection, disposes him to confide in me as a 
friend and confidant, and adds, to his fear of having offended 
God, a farther uneasiness, from having brought much trouble 
upon me and himself. Though I have spoken of myself, I have 
ray wife full as much in my eye while I give this description. 
Occasions are often occurring, in which the little children come 
to her with full hearts to tell her of some misbehaviour or wrong 
temper. They come without fear, but with a load of concern and 
regret, which they evidently hope to lighten by obtaining her 
sympathy and condolence. You may be sure she always en- 
courages this course of proceeding ; and I am convinced that 
under God's blessing, it answers the very best purposes. I need 
not say, that, in the way in which she treats such cases, it is her 
aim always to give the feelings of the Christian a complete ascen- 
dancy over those of the mother ; and I think she succeeds well . 
But, after all, will children dread the commission of faults, and 
guard against them, unless they stand in awe of some immediate 
punishment ? I think they will, and on the same ground on which 
men and women do, provided our whole system, or some other 
founded on similar principles, is adopted early, and steadily pur- 
sued. It is thought absurd for adults to subject themselves to 
penances for their sins ; and why should it not be right to subject 
children to as little of this sort as may be, and to endeavor as 
early as may be to bring them to a system analogous to that which 
we Protestants think the right one for grown-up people ? Their 
minds are capable of being wrought upon by the same means 
which God has appointed for men in general ; and these means 
cannot be too early employed, and cannot too soon acquire that 
preponderance in a system of education, which may make them 
supersede the use of the rod ; a weapon necessary, in a degree, 
for managing brute animals, and man also, as far as his nature 
resembles theirs ; but it is the great business of Christian educa- 
tion to exalt his nature — to cherish that new nature implanted by 



APPENDIX. 193 

grace in his soul, and as speedily as possible to subject him to a 
discipline suited to the state of heart we wish to encourage. 

" Do not suppose, though we endeavor to banish punishment as 
much as may be, that our system is one of indulgence. It is a 
main part of it to establish habits of resolute, though cheerful, 
self-denial in all points in which duty calls for sacrifices. We 
always hold up the principle of acting on grounds of right and 
wrong, and not on those of inclination, except in points purely in- 
different, which are brought within a narrow compass. Nothing 
is ever granted to mere entreaty ; and we have none of that beg- 
ging and whining which shows generally a laxity of principle, 
and always a defective system of education, wherever it is prac- 
tised. 

" In this way we endeavor to promote, in our own children that 
1 hardness ' which all the soldiers of Christ must learn to endure. 
But, then, this plan is sweetened by as much affection, affability, 
cheerfulness, and desire to make our children happy within the 
bounds of duty, as we can pour into it, consistently with the 
great truth, which is often inculcated, that neither man nor child 
must live for pleasure, but that his object and employment must 
be work — the work which God has given him to do ; and a con- 
siderable part of which (especially in the case of a child) is to 
prepare for doing better work in future years. 

"As to the passages of Scripture which you mention, I own 
they do not alter my view of this case. It is most true, that ' the 
rod must not be spared' in the cases in which it ought to be used ; 
but then comes the question I have been discussing in this letter : 
What are those cases ? Indeed, the frequency and general com- 
plexion of the passages to which you refer would lead one to sup- 
pose, that Solomon conceived that cases of this kind would be 
very common : and, in short, that corporal punishment would be 
a leading feature in a right education. But it is to be remembered 
under what dispensation he lived — under one which was compa- 
ratively low — one in which there was much of beggarly element ; 
much that was permitted because of the hardness of the hearts of 
those who lived under it. Should we not expect, that under such a 
dispensation, and for the use of such a people as the Jews, many 



194 APPENDIX. 

things would be enjoined not well accommodated to our times ; 
and, in particular, that the approved system of education would 
partake less of what is (in a spiritual sense) refined and elevated, 
than ought to enter into " the nurture and admonition of the Lord,' ' 
under the blaze of the Gospel light most graciously vouchsafed 
to us ? This general view might be illustrated and corroborated 
by many things in the New Testament. 

" May God bless us in all we do for our children ! The con- 
cluding lines of Cowper's Task may well be applied, in their 
spirit, to this subject of education. 

" But all is in His hand whose praise I seek, 
In vain the poet sings, and the world hears, 
If He regard not, though divine the theme. 
'Tis not in artful measures, in the chime 
And idle tinkling of a minstrel's lyre, 
To charm His ear, whose eye is on the heart ; 
Whose frown can disappoint the proudest strain, 
Whose approbation prosper even mine !" 

" I remain, dear Sir, 

" Your's very truly, &c." 



APPENDIX 195 

No. II. 

LIST OF TEXTS REFERRED TO AT PAGE 94. 



Matt. iii. 7—12 

vii. 1—5, 7—29 ; ix. 11—13, 37, 38 ; x. 26—33, 37—42 ; xi. 20—26, 28— 
30 ; xii. 34—37, 43—50 ; xiii. 4—12, 18—23 ; xiv. 22—33 ; xv. 21—28 ; 
xvi. 24—28; xvii. 1—8; xviii. 1—6, 10—14, 21—35; xix. 13—15; 23— 
30 ; xx. 25—28 ; xxi. 28—31 ; xxii. 2—14, 34—40 ; xxiii. 8—12, 37—39 ; 
xxiv. 42—51 ; xxv ; xxvi. 36—46 ; xxviii. 16—20. 

Mark ii. 21, 22 ; vi. 45—52 ; vii. 20—23 ; viii. 33—38 ; ix. 43—50 ; xi. 
24—26 ; xii. 41—44. 

Luke i. 32, 33, 68—80; ii. 10—14, 29—35; iii. 10—14; iv. 16— 
" mouth" in 22 ; vii. 36—50 ; ix. 28—36 ; x. 21—24, 38, from " and"— 
42 ; xii. 16—21, 32, 34 ; 47, 48 ; xiii. 24—29 ; xv. 11—32 ; xvi. 10—13, 
15, 19—31 ; xvii. 1, 2, 17, 18 ; xviii. 9—14 ; xix. 41—44 ; xx. 46, 47 ; xxii. 
31, 32, 56—62 ; xxiii. 27, 28, 34, 39—43, 46—48. 

John i. 1—14, 47 ; iii. 1—3, 5, 6, 14—21 ; iv. 10, 13 ; 14, 23, 24 ; v. 19— 
29, 44 ; ix. 39—41 ; x. 11—18 ; xi. 28—36 ; xii. 42, 43 ; xiii. 12—17, 34, 
35 ; xiv. 1—3, 27 ; xv. ; xix 26—27 ; xxi. 15—17. 

Acts i. 11, from " ye ;" ii. 41—47 ; iv. 19, 20 ; vii. 54—60 ; ix. 3—6 ; 
x. 1, 2, 34, 35; xi. 22, from "and"— 24; xiv. 15—17; xvi. 25—34; 
xvii. 22 from " ye"— 31 ; xx. 17—38 ; xxvi. 24—29 ; xxviii. 26, 27. 

Rom. i. 16 ; ii. 28, 29 ; vi. 1—14 ; xi. 33—36 ; xii. ; xv. 1—6, 13 ; xvi. 
25—27. 

1 Cor. i. 17—31 ; ii. 1—5, 12—14 ; iii. 18—20 ; x. 12, 13, 31—33 ; xi. 1. ; 
xiii. 1 — 7. 

2 Cor. iv. 16—18 ; v. ; x. 4, 5 ; xii. 7—10. 
Gal. v. 19—26 ; vi. 1—5, 7-9, 14—16. 

Eph. i. 15, 23; ii. 1—10; iii. 14—21; iv. 1—6, 17—32; v. 1—12; vi. 
10— "spirit" in 18. 

Phil. i. 9—11 ; ii. 1—18 ; iii 7—16 ; iv. 4—9, 11—13. 

Colos. i. 9—23 ; iii. 1—17. 

1 Thess. ii. 1—12; iii. 7—13; iv. 1, to " sanctification " in 3 with 
girls, and to 8 with boys. 

1 Tim. vi. 6—16. 

2 Tim. i. 7—12 ; ii. 11—13, 24—26 ; iii. 14—17 ; iv. 6—8. 
Tit. ii. 3—5, 11—15 ; iii. 1—8. 

Heb. i. ; ii. ; iv. 12—16 ; xii ; 1—14 ; xiii. 20, 21. 

Jam. i. 2—8, 13, 14, 26, 27 , iii. 17 ; iv. 1—4, 6—8, 10, 13—16 ; v. 10, 
11, 16. 

1 Pet. i. ; ii. 1—3, 18—25 ; iii. 1—4, 7—6 ; v. 5—11. 

2 pet. i. 5 8. 

1 John i. 3— io ; ii. 1—6, 9—11, 15—17 ; iii. 1—3, 14—18, 23, 24 , iv. 
7-11, 16-21 ; v. 3-5, 14, 15. 

Jude, 20, 21, 24, 25. 

Rev. i. 4—8; ii. 2—" churches" in 11 ! iii. 1—11, 14, 22; v. 9, from 
" for" 14 ; vi. 12—17 ; vii. 9—17 ; xi. 15—18 ; xv. 1—4 ; xix. 5—10 ; xx 
11—15 ; xxi. 3—8, 27 ; xxii. 12—17. 



196 APPENDIX. 



No. III. * 

[extracted from the christian observer for may, 1817.] 

My dear R . 

I told you I meditated a letter of some importance. Your years 
of education are over — you have entered into life as your own 
master — and it is now my intention to bring under your view the 
considerations which bear upon the choice of such a plan and 
course of action in setting out in life, as may be most conducive 
to your own welfare, and that of your connexions, both here and 
hereafter. Mistakes in this point are not only attended by present 
danger, but are productive of future difficulties, and threaten 
wide-spreading mischief. 

First, then, the great object — that object compared with which 
all others so shrink into insignificance, that in Scripture it is em- 
phatically called "the one thing needful" — is to be a Christian, 
and to lead a life befitting a Christian. The latter of these du- 
ties was contemplated by the Apostle, in his call on all who bore 
the Christian name to consider what manner of persons they 
ought to be in all holy conversation (meaning, by that term, our 
conduct in social life,) and godliness. The two obligations are 
most intimately connected. The former is the natural fruit of the 
latter ; and the latter cannot be maintained without the former. .But 
there are degrees in most things ; and both points, therefore, may 
be often substantially attained where there is a mixture of much 
imperfection. To sit down, however, satisfied with imperfection 
is incompatible with the very essence of Christianity ; which re- 
quires us constantly to aim at the highest standard, and to make it 
our unremitting endeavor to be perfect, even as our Father which 



APPENDIX. 197 

is in heaven is perfect. If we thus act with the devout spirit, 
humility, earnestness, simplicity, and sincerity of true followers 
of our blessed Saviour, he will mercifully pardon our defects, and 
lead us on towards higher attainments ; neither of which have we 
any scriptural right to expect while our aim and desire are 
bounded by any thing short of Christian perfection. 

You will, I fear, think this exordium long, but I must make it 
still longer: for, in order to see what "conversation" becomes a 
Christian, we must call to mind what is his " calling ;" — how 
exalted, how far removed from the low and mean standard of 
those who are Christians in name only, or who, if Christians in- 
deed, are of so equivocal a character, that at best they build only 
with hay, straw, stubble ; and if saved at all, must be saved " so 
as by fire." A Christian is called "out of the world" to have 
fellowship w T ith God ; while the world, notwithstanding all spe- 
cious appearances, is represented as under the power of Satan. 
The change thus wrought in him is described as a change " from 
darkness to light ;" and the strongest images are every where used 
in Scripture to set forth his happiness, and the misery and crimi- 
nality of those who have not, like him, escaped from the snares 
and the pollutions which abound among the great body of man- 
kind. He is spoken of as " an heir of heaven," and as sitting 
even now " in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." TAew, on the 
contrary, are represented as under the Divine wrath ; and, while 
living " according to the course of this world," are said to live 
under the immediate influence of " the spirit that now worketh in 
the children of disobedience." (Eph. ii. 2.) 

We cannot, then, be surprised that a just and holy God should 
make so wide a difference between these two classes, when we 
reflect that, however they may often agree in inferior points, yet 
in their leading and paramount principles, and in the great features 
of their character, they are directly opposed to each other. They 
are opposed in no less a degree than as his servants and his 
enemies. This view of things is strikingly exhibited in Mr. 
Wilberforce's work on Vital Christianity — a work which is more 
familiar to you than to me, and for which I know your just 
partiality,. One passage to which I particularly allude, is thai 

s 2 



198 APPENDIX. 

respecting "good hearted young men," and "innocent young 
women." 

The very great difference between the two classes which I 
have mentioned is not the only thing to be noticed ; but also the 
great danger lest that class which has escaped from the general 
wickedness and peril should be drawn again into the vortex by its 
intercourse with the other. The temptations presented by the 
world are described in Scripture as most alluring ; and our own 
hearts as most prone to yield to them ; while the devil and his 
angels are represented as full of wiles, and as exerting them all to 
give to those temptations the victory over us. 
Let us consider these points more distinctly. 
The world is engaged, as far at least as common prudence will 
permit, in indulging the propensities and appetites natural to man ; 
and its familiar maxims, and expressions of taste and feeling, bear 
the stamp of this its course. Now, the great effort of Christians 
is to emancipate themselves from the dominion of those appe- 
tites and propensities ; to " keep the body under, and bring it 
into subjection ;" and " to crucify the flesh with its affections and 
lusts." Surely, therefore, such persons should avoid those who 
pursue the opposite course, as far, at least, as is consistent with the 
business and the charities of life. If they do not, they will al- 
most infallibly wander from God ; all that is good in them will 
fade : and instead of " abhorring that which is evil, and cleaving 
to that which is good" — instead of delighting in spirituality of 
character and holiness of conversation— instead of dreading and 
shunning the reverse, and feeling a dissatisfying void wherever, 
though decorum is sustained, these holy and heavenly qualities 
are wanting — they will find the distinction between good and 
evil less and less strongly marked in their affections, and, through 
the influence of their affections, by degrees, less strongly marked 
in their judgments ; till both affection and judgment, but espe- 
cially the former, will be in imminent danger of passing over from 
God's side to the side of the enemy. Then will creep upon them 
the degeneracy of the church of Ephesus, in leaving its " first 
love;" of Laodicea, in being "lukewarm;" and finally ofSardis, 
whose Christian attainments were all " ready to die," and which 



APPENDIX. 199 

had a name that it lived while it wa« dead. Thus, instead of 
being rendered, by the powerful influence of Christian society 
and example operating in aid of the other means of grace, " meet 
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,' ' there is 
reason to fear that, by too free communication with the world, 
and by an attendant and consequent love of the world, they may 
find in the fearful day of account that they have been gradually 
preparedfor the society and inheritance of the wicked. 

You will perceive that I do not present you with this picture, 
in order to convince you that we ought not to commit ourselves 
to the full stream of the world, in its society, its habits, and 
amusements. You, my dear R., are yourself perfectly ready to 
say in that sense, " Be not conformed to this world. 1 ' My object 
is rather to impress on your mind how little we should join in its 
course; how far we should stand aloof from it. The question is, 
doubtless, one of degree ; but it nevertheless may be a question of 
the highest importance : for in many cases, of which this is one, 
all depends upon degree. With men of the world we must of 
course join in business: we also owe to them all courtesy and 
kindness : we must, therefore, have with them some measure of 
social intercourse. These circumstances, aided by the propensity 
of our own natures, and the artifices of Satan, will infallibly draw 
us on to too large a measure of it, if we are not very strictly on 
our guard. We shall be in great danger of improper compliances, 
and in still greater of losing a portion of the genuine Christian 
spirit, and of gradually imbibing a spirit opposed to it. And then 
what must follow ? Do we hope that in such case we shall ad- 
vance in the divine life ? Do we even hope that we can maintain 
the ground already acquired ? How can we expect to advance up 
the arduous ascent, when we are setting our faces the other way, 
by undue intercourse with those who are either in the vale below 
or are descending towards it ? And yet to stand still in the divine 
life is impossible. Unless we advance, we must go back. Some 
fair appearances may still be kept up, and our indulgent friends 
may still retain their hopes : but all is likely soon to become hol- 
low and unsound, and we shall be apt to lose the very life and 
soul of true religion. I will not dilate farther on any of thesp 



200 APPENDIX. 

topics : but they seem to me to furnish irresistible arguments for 
fighting manfully against the seductions of the world ; for pre- 
scribing to ourselves a course of conduct, so opposed to its course, 
as with God's help to preserve us from those seductions : and for 
maintaining in all our intercourse with society a holy jealousy of 
worldly influence, and a holy distrust of ourselves. 

The circumstance which most tends to lull well disposed per- 
sons into practical forgetfulness of these truths, or at least into a 
very inadequate attention to them, is the agreement of religious 
and of decent worldly characters in so many inferior points, that 
the vast difference between them in essentials may not at first 
strike the view. Both are obliging, attentive to truth and honesty, 
and to their domestic, social, and public duties : both abstain 
from gross vice, and acknowledge the obligations of morality. 
But on a close inspection, it will appear that the one class serve 
God, mainly, sincerely, and unreservedly, and make his will their 
practical standard of duty : and that the other act on different 
principles — such as those of honor, worldly estimation, deference 
to the opinions and example of relations — to all which, religion, 
even if it have any sensible influence, is made subordinate. And 
although the religious man will be found very far superior to the 
worldly class, in resisting temptations to deviate from the right 
course, as well as in the serenity and elevation of his soul under 
trials ; yet the best of the latter class exhibit so much that is 
amiable in conduct, especially when we endeavor, as we ought, 
to view them with candor, that we shall be in the greatest dan- 
ger, if we be not on our guard, of losing sight of the immense 
distance between them and the true Christian. And yet, let it 
never be forgotten, in the sight of God the one class lives, and the 
other is dead while it appears to live : and we shall die too, if we 
become conformed to it. 

Our temptation to overlook this mighty interval between these 
two classes is often much increased by the defects and imperfec- 
tions, in many points, of the true Christians we associate with, 
when compared with the worldly characters to whom we have 
access. The comparatively small number of the former frequently 
affords us very little room for selection ; while, among the latter, 



APPENDIX. 201 

we have a very extensive choice, and may suit our taste by fixing 
on those who are possessed of qualities which w T e naturally ad- 
mire. And while we thus gratify ourselves by selecting pleasing 
associates, we shall be very apt to give them credit for much more 
of good, and much less of evil, than they really possess ; and 
consequently to multiply and magnify to our imaginations the de- 
fects of our less fascinating religious acquaintance. 

Then hope comes in to assist the delusion. We cannot think 
that persons so pleasing will not improve, and in the end, perhaps 
in a short time, add true religion to their other attainments. We 
even flatter ourselves that this most desirable event will be pro- 
moted by our own attentions ; and in this way almost persuade 
ourselves that it is our duty to give them a large share of our 
society, and perhaps of our friendship ; nay, possibly, we smooth, 
by our acquiescence, their unhallowed path, and connive at their 
faultiness, the better to win them over to religion. The result of 
such a course, or of any course analogous to it, is far more likely 
to be prejudicial to the Christian than beneficial to the other party. 
The firmness of Christian principle is weakened, its elevation is 
sunk, its purity soiled, its brightness dimmed, and its influence in 
the soul lessened, perhaps lost, before the unhappy adventurer — 
who is thus trying (for, however shocking, so it is !) what fellow- 
ship there can be betwixt Christ and Belial — is aware of his 
situation. Associations formed on such principles will admit of 
a variety of shades and gradations in describing their progress ; 
but the practical result, I fear, is likely to be, for the most part, of 
the same dark complexion. 

After all, when we have a propensity to indulge in worldly so- 
ciety, does not the evil lie deeper than in an error of judgment, as 
to what is the best Christian course ? May it not be traced to the 
absence of a sound Christian taste ; to the want of a due appro- 
val of " the things which are excellent ?" If we are in any ade- 
quate measure sensible not only of the value, but of the beauty of 
holiness ; if we enter deeply into the loveliness of the character 
of our blessed Redeemer ; if we are in a disposition to have 
listened, like the converts at Corinth, with interest and delight to 
the discourses of the humble Paul, rather than to the polished 



202 



\PPENDIX. 



harangues of the philosophers, and to have taken the Tent-maker 
and his friends for our companions, instead of those admired sages ; 
then surely we shall not suffer refined manners, mental ability, ta- 
lents for conversation, and other similar endowments, to outweigh 
in our esteem and affections those qualities of our religious friends 
which have the praise, not of man, but of God, and possess an in- 
trinsic loveliness, as well as a sterling excellence, far outweighing 
all that the world can boast. To be alive to this loveliness, and 
to respond to it in the tenor of our affections, was made by our 
Saviour a distinguishing mark of his disciples. (John xiii. 34, 
35 ; xv. 12, 17 ; 1 John iii. 14.) And corresponding habits of 
intercourse and union are insisted upon very frequently in the New 
Testament. (John xvii. 20, 23 ; Acts iv. 32, &c.) Lucian, at a 
later period, bears testimony to this character in true believers : 
" See how these Christians love one another." If, then, we dis- 
cover in ourselves a want of this characteristic, nay, if even we 
discover (and this discovery we may all make in a considerable 
degree) that it falls short of the life and energy with which it 
shone forth in the first disciples of Christ ; let us be earnest in 
our prayers and diligent in our endeavors to attain it, and to cherish 
in ourselves so important an evidence of our religious character. 

I have stated, that a wish to win others to religion is sometimes 
urged as a motive for improper compliances with the world. This 
motive is in itself so amiable ; and excellent ; it is so often brought 
forward as an extenuation by those who err in this particular 
respect ; and is so much held*out by the world itself as an induce- 
ment for religious persons to relax in strictness, and to join, more 
than is consistent, in worldly society and amusements, that it re- 
quires a particular and distinct consideration. 

Christians ought to. adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in 
all things. His doctrine, like himself, is "altogether lovely ;" and 
grievously deficient must that disciple be in the spirit of his Lord, 
if not also in his views of Christian duty, who disfigures the Gos- 
pel by gloomy austerity, or by a want of cordial kindness and 
courtesy towards those from whom, by the unmerited grace of 
God, he has been made to differ. But as an Englishman must 
never forget, when surrounded by foreigners with whose nation 



APPENDIX. 203 

his own is at war, that he is an Englishman ; as a good subject 
must never forget his principles and character when thrown among 
those who are adverse to the constitution of his country ; and as, 
in both these cases, kindness and courtesy must be accompanied 
by much caution and prudent reserve, and by a studied care not 
to join in any thing wrong, not to omit any duty to his country, 
not even to subject himself to the suspicion of so doing ; so 
likewise must the Christian conduct himself in the midst of the 
world. He professes to be a stranger and sojourner in it ; he pro- 
fesses to stand aloof from its principles, its habits, its spirit ; he 
has renounced the usurper that rules in it, "the prince of the 
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of 
disobedience." Surely then he must dread its influence, and 
shun all approaches to familiarity with it : and while he endeavors 
to " abound in love and in goo<} words" towards all men, he must 
not fail to guard against lowering the pure and elevated standard 
of true religion in their eyes ; against injury to his own princi- 
ples and spirit, or even the subjecting them to suspicion ; and also 
against giving any countenance to principles and a spirit opposed 
to those which he is bound by every tie of Christian allegiance, 
and Christian gratitude, to cultivate. Even therefore if he could 
make the Gospel of his Saviour amiable in the eyes of others, at 
the expense of any of these objects, he would be bound not to 
attempt to do so. By detracting from its character, and from his 
own, he might possibly render it more palatable to those who 
cannot "abide its purity," or relish that which should adorn the 
lives of all who embrace it. But though it would be thus less 
revolting to their natural appetites and passions, it would also be 
less an object of their esteem and admiration. It would lose, I 
think, more than it would gain in their eyes, and they would per- 
haps be farther from embracing it than when it wore a less accom- 
modating aspect. But even if they were thus induced to embrace 
it, they would neither embrace the true and unadulterated Gospel, 
nor would they in all probability proceed in their new course with 
genuine repentance and lively faith. Their Saviour would not be 
the object of their affection as " holy, harmless, and undefiled, and 
separate from sinners." They would not hear from his lips, with 



204 APPENDIX. 

the full and cordial approbation of true disciples, " Love not the 
world, neither the things of the world. If any man love the 
world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John ii. 15, 16.) 
Their Saviour would be shorn of those beams of transcendant 
brightness which belong to Jesus Christ ; and their Gospel would 
not only in very many particulars, but in its general spirit, be 
"another Gospel;" not reflecting, like the true, the unsullied 
glories of Christ, but affording only a faint, obscure, and imperfect 
shadow of Him who is the image of the invisible God. Such 
was not the Saviour who came to " purify unto himself a pecu- 
liar people, zealous of good works." Such was not the Gospel 
given to turn men " from darkness to light, and from the power 
of Satan unto God;" nor can scriptural conversion be expected, 
however smooth and flattering outward appearances, through a 
Saviour and a Gospel so mutilated and disfigured. 

I have hitherto touched only incidentally on the effect of an 
undue intercourse with the world, on the family and immediate 
connexions of the person who falls into this error, and on its effect 
also on those who live around him. It will therefore be necessary 
to consider these points more distinctly. 

First — As to his relations and friends. 

Here the mischief must be great and rapid ; ten, twenty, thirty 
persons may be very soon injured by his inconsistent conduct f 
and among these there may be many far less prepared than him- 
self for meeting the threatened danger, far less fenced and guarded 
against its worst evils, and far less furnished with principles and 
habits which may lead after a fall to a recovery. Some may be 
very young and inexperienced, others particularly pliant and un- 
reflecting, easily captivated by certain showy qualities, or averse to 
self-denial, or very open to flattery and self-delusion. Though his 
own bark should ride steadily, and preserve a straight course (no 
likely event) amidst the shifting winds and currents to which he 
ventures to consign it, what will become of theirs ? And will he 
thus run the risk of destroying his " weak brother for whom Christ 
died," in a case in which to escape fatal evils is so difficult ? Ra- 
ther let him imitate the great Apostle of the Gentiles, who declared, 
that he Would abstain for ever from a practice innocent in itself, (and 



APPENDIX. 205 

who shall pronounce that worldly conformity is so ?) rather than 
make his brother to offend : (See Rom. xiv. and 1 Cor. viii.) 

But particularly, my dear R., would I call the attention of any 
person undecided in his mind, or hesitating in his conduct, on the 
point under consideration, to the effect of his example on his 
children. How great will be their danger, if the habits of their 
parents on this point being lax, they are led from their infancy to 
dally with temptation by mixing too freely with the world, in- 
stead of being carefully taught, by example as well as by precept, 
that Christ's disciples are " not of the world," for that "he has 
chosen them out of the world !" So prone are the young to gra- 
tify their wishes, and so seducing are the pleasures which the 
world offers to them, that, humanly speaking, I see no prospect of 
their resisting the temptation to swim with the stream, if they are 
not early and long trained by the habits of their family, to stand 
in awe of so doing. As they advance a little in life, the young 
women will have to withstand the vivid sense of pleasure, and 
the strong desire not to be slighted or ridiculed on account of their 
particularity, and comparative seclusion ; and the young men will 
be assailed by still stronger temptations at school, and afterwards 
on a still farther entrance into life. Happy will it be, (especially 
in the case of the latter,) if parental principles and the parental 
system so far maintain their ground in the youthful bosom, that 
though the tender shoots of religion may yield to the blasts and 
blights to which they are exposed, the root, at least, may be kept 
alive by the Spirit of God, in mercy to parents whom he loves, 
and send forth a fresh and more vigorous scion in after life ! But 
let no parents look for this blessing, and presume to hope that 
their "labor will not be in vain in the Lord," unless in training 
up their offspring they are " sober and vigilant," and " always 
abounding," not only in their instructions, but in their example 
also, and their family institutions, " in the work of the Lord." 

There are also other relations not to be overlooked : I mean 
such as, from their age and confirmed Christian habits, may pro- 
bably not be misled by the example of a young relation ; but 
who will be subjected to deep anxiety, and great pain, by his mis- 
conduct in the point under consideration. Among the^e parents 

T 



206 APPENDIX. 

stand pre-eminent. Think what parents must feel when they see 
their long course of instruction ineffectual ; their example un- 
availing ; their family habits abandoned, abandoned in a point so 
important, and so near their hearts ; their feelings sacrificed to a 
youthful love of pleasure, or to the fancy, perhaps even the deli- 
berate judgment, of one who ought, in wisdom and kindness, as 
well as in duty, to accommodate himself to their wishes. Could 
a young person lose much substantial good, even in his own 
judgment, by thus accommodating himself to the wishes of those 
who have his benefit at heart, in the restrictions which they feel 
it necessary to lay upon his intercourse with a deceitful world ? 
Or if his pleasure is to be balanced against their pain, is he sure 
that he gains more than he takes from them ? 

This appeal would be just, even in the case of an only child . 
How much stronger then, when there are brothers and sisters, in 
whose education, and confirmation in good principles and habits, 
parents will find their hands weakened by the indiscretion or ob- 
stinacy of one member of the family ! When they contemplate 
the future, and especially the event of their being removed from 
their family by death, their fears of mischievous consequences 
will probably far exceed the evils they at present experience. 
Under such circumstances, how difficult the line of parental duty ! 
To hold up one of their children as a warning to the rest, is a most 
painful measure, and one from which they will abstain as much 
as possible : but to avoid it altogether is not always possible or 
safe, consistently with their parental obligations. However guar- 
dedly and tenderly they perform this duty, it may lead to conse- 
quences which they would most anxiously wish to avoid, and the 
very danger of which will affect them most sensibly. Surely 
when all these domestic considerations are united, they cannot 
be resisted by any young person without a degree of hardihood 
not very compatible with that gentleness, that spirit of accommo- 
dation and of deference to elders, and especially to parents, and 
that anxious endeavor to maintain harmony and unity with fellow- 
Christians and relations, which the Gospel everywhere inculcates. 

If the foregoing considerations ought to induce a child to follow 
the parental system, even when more than ordinarily rigid, and in 



APPENDIX. 207 

some points perhaps liable to the imputation of going too far, 
what must be thought of a departure from that system, when it is 
marked by a spirit of accommodation as far as duty will permit ; 
when it is neither offensive nor obtrusive ; when it endeavors to 
avoid extremes, and, taken as a whole, is moderate, and sanc- 
tioned, though perhaps with some exceptions, by the general 
practice of the decided followers of Christ ? So strong are the 
temptations which assail youth in its pursuit of personal gratifi- 
cations, or in its eagerness to shun singularity, and the ridicule 
attached to it — so great, in some instances, is its thoughtlessness 
as to consequences, and in others its love of a fancied indepen- 
dence — that such cases, it will readily be allowed, may exist : but 
at the same time no parent will like to dwell upon them. 

These things must be said for parents ; for (whether rightly or 
not) parents will often have too much delicacy and generosity to 
say them, at least to say them plainly and freely, for themselves : 
but the subject will not on that account press the less forcibly on 
their minds, and sadden their hearts. I do not like to enlarge on 
this topic, or to set forth the long train of benefits, with their at- 
tendant cares and labors, conferred on the one side, and the cor- 
responding obligations contracted on the other. But could my 
voice be heard through the land, I should wish solemnly to leave 
these considerations to the dispassionate reflection of the young ; 
and to call upon them to count the cost paid by others, and above 
all 'by a parent, for their departure from the principles inculcated 
in their education, and from the established habits of their families. 

Secondly — As to the general effect on others. 

I fear that an undue intercourse of religious with worldly char- 
acters is calculated to blind the eyes of the latter, as to their dis- 
tance from God, and to lead them to think that cordial and vital 
religion is a thing more of profession than reality, and to view it 
therefore with disrespect. Now, whatever tends to bring Chris- 
tianity down from her high eminence, must tend to degrade her 
in the eyes of men, and to despoil her of her rightful authority, 
while it tends also to degrade her votaries, and particularly those 
who thus deprive her of her honors. 

What I have said, and shall have occasion still to say in this 



-JOS APPENDIX. 

letter, prevents my enlarging on this topic beyond a single obser- 
vation. If the blessed Jesus himself was vilified as " gluttonous 
and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners," because he 
mixed freely with the world, though he mixed with it only to lead 
it to God, and to perform the sacred duties for the sake of which 
he came upon earth ; what is likely to be said of those who mix 
with it too freely without his perfect innocence, without his native 
dignity or Divine wisdom, and without his object full in their 
view, and forming the life and soul of their practice ? I believe 
no Christian of much experience will find any difficulty in an- 
swering this inquiry. 

As this question, with respect to intercourse with the world, 
has been said to be a question of degree, you will ask, perhaps, 
for some guidance on that point. It is apparent, that within due 
bounds, the proper degree of intercourse will depend much on the 
personal character of the party, on the state of his family, and on 
the circumstances in which he is placed ; and his best guide will 
be the Holy Spirit, operating through a watchful and enlightened 
conscience. But still something may be said on this subject, 
which may serve to point out certain rocks and shelves to be 
avoided in the Christian voyage, and to ascertain the limits within 
which the course of the vessel should, in all ordinary cases, be 
confined. 

First, then, he must take care that his society shall consist 
chiefly of religious characters. 

A man's companions will generally be chosen according to the 
prevailing bent of his own opinions and dispositions, and will 
therefore be no incorrect index of the state of his soul. But if 
circumstances should throw him into a circle of persons differing 
materially from himself— such in the human mind is the power of 
sympathy, the propensity to imitation, and the desire to concilitate 
the good will of others, an object best effected by becoming like 
them — that he will probably soon begin to imbibe something of 
the taste and spirit of his new companions. It is vain for any one 
to hope that his good principles and dispositions, and his moral 
taste, will continue unsullied, if he associate much with persons 
of an opposite character. In hazarding the experiment he is 



APPENDIX. 209 

trifling with one of the most powerful engines of good or of evil, 
according as it is used, which God has given to man ; and he can 
no more control its operation, than he could change the course of 
summer and winter. Its force, though capable of being in a mea- 
sure eluded and mitigated, cannot by any means be destroyed ; 
and if applied in the wrong direction, it will not fail to impress on 
his soul baneful, and, not improbably, fatal marks of its potency. 
We should at once allow this statement in political, and in merely 
moral points. What would be thought of any man, professedly 
loyal, who was much, and willingly, in the society of persons 
notoriously otherwise ? What of a professedly sober or honest 
man who associated with the intemperate and dishonest? And 
what is there in religion to exempt the professedly religious man 
from suspicion as to his real principles, from the charge of incon- 
sistency and folly, and from a progressive deterioration by means 
of his companions, if he mixes, more than the business of life and 
Christian kindness render necessary, with persons of an opposite 
character? On the contrary, he will even be more liable to sus- 
picion, and he will also be in greater danger than the persons 
which have been mentioned, because, his conscience being more 
enlightened than theirs, he acts in opposition to higher principles 
and more powerful checks. He professes to live in the love and 
fear of his God and Saviour, and to devote himself unreservedly 
to their service. He is aware that he cannot do this without the 
aid of the Holy Spirit, to " work in him both to will and to do, 
according to God's good pleasure." And how then can he hope 
to be a temple of that Divine Agent — to have that Spirit dwelling 
in his heart — if he does not act on the rules, and pursue the 
course best calculated to keep himself " unspotted from the world." 
2. He must abstain from intimacy with those whom he does 
not believe to be true Christians. Civility and kindness may be 
well preserved without intimacy. The latter, from taste as well 
from prudence, should be carefully avoided, where w r e have not 
reason to think there is sound religious principle. From taste — 
because if we value our high calling as we ought, we shall natu- 
rally feel a sort of repugnance to an intimacy with those who are 
u alienated in their minds" from that God and that Saviour whom 



210 APPENDIX. 



we delight to serve : from prudence — because intimacy removes 
many of the guards and reserves which to a considerable degree 
regulate conversation and conduct in general society, and thus 
prevent bad principles and dispositions from exhibiting themselves 
to the view of others. Besides, if intimacy is avoided, that fa- 
miliarity of intercourse between the younger members of two 
families, which would be dangerous, may be prevented, without 
the necessity of embarrassing explanations. On the opposite sup- 
position, the whole case will be reversed, and the most lamentable 
consequences may be expected to follow. 

3. Let a participation with the world in its assemblages for pur- 
poses of pleasure be avoided. There are many pleasures which 
the Christian enjoys in common with men of a different charac- 
ter. There are others of which he cannot partake at all without 
a manifest dereliction of Christian duty. The latter, of course, 
must be altogether shunned : the former must be enjoyed in such 
a manner as not to render that which is safe and allowable in 
itself, unsafe and unfit from its attendant circumstances. Now 
the spirit of the world never breaks forth with less restraint than 
in its professed amusements. Not only do these very much re- 
move customary guards and restrictions, but by being framed for 
the indulgence of worldly appetites, and dispositions merely na- 
tural, they draw these propensities forth into a more prominent 
display than usual. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and 
the pride of life, appear in decorous, perhaps, but very intelligible 
shapes, and in connection also with so much that is good humored 
and amiable, as to assume the most seducing appearance. Happy 
they who, having once entered the magic circle, escape its fascina- 
tions ! Happy, if they do not become, in a measure, reconciled to 
the low and unhallowed principles of the gay crowd with which 
they associate ! Of those who think that they pass through this 
fire unhurt, certainly the greater part flatter and delude them- 
selves. At all events, the Christian ought not to incur the danger. 
Nothing is more imperceptibly imbibed than a worldly spirit, and 
nothing is more fatal than such a spirit to the very life and exis- 
tence of true religion. It requires all the efforts and all the 
watchfulness of the Christian, even under favorable circum- 
stances, to escape its infection. What then must be his danger, 
when he places himself in the very atmosphere where it abounds ! 
— Is he not then flagrantly violating the precept implied in the 
petition which he so often addresses to his God, " Lead us not 
into temptation ?-" Instead of " fleeing youthful lusts," is he not 
throwing himself into the very region where they are prevalent ? 
And if these questions cannot be satisfactorily answered, as they 
certainly cannot, let him solemnly ask himself still another, Whe- 
ther he is not " giving place to the devil." 

4. "The course of the Christian ought to be such as to shew 
clearly to what class of persons he belongs. He owes this full 



APPENDIX. 211 

disclosure to God and to man, and of men to none more than to 
himself. If his conduct is equivocal, he either does not display 
the standard of his holy warfare, or he displays it only to dis- 
honor it. In the first case, how can he hope to be acknowledged 
by Christ as his soldier ? In the second, how can he hope for the 
meed of a good and faithful soldier ? His light either does not shine 
before men, or at best it does not shine with such clearness and 
purity as to lead them to glorify his heavenly Father. By holding 
a course which leaves it a matter of any doubt whether he fol- 
lows Christ or the world, he violates his duty to man as well as 
to God ; for he is required not only to work out his own salva- 
tion, but to promote by every means in his power the salvation of 
all around him. But how can he hope in any measure to succeed 
in the latter object unless his conduct bear the clear stamp of the 
elevated principles of the Gospel, and therefore the stamp of their 
contrariety to the principles of the world ? And how can he 
exhibit that stamp, if he slide into a similarity to the conduct of 
the world, in points in which Christians in general think that a 
decided and manifest distinction is requisite ? The effect of this 
dubious system of conduct upon men of the world is very obvious. 
They will imagine, either that the profession of strict Christian 
principle is unsound, having more of pretence than of reality in 
it, or that Christian principle is a far lower thing, and approaches 
far nearer to the principles of the world at large, than is in fact the 
case. On either supposition, their conversion to God will be not 
forwarded but impeded. How eager will the " god of this world" 
be to avail himself of such means of blinding men's eyes, and of 
keeping them from coming to the true light which alone can lead 
them to salvation ! 

But after all, he who adopts so dubious a course, and who 
seems so backward to choose whom he will serve, most injures 
himself. His consistency will be denied ; and it must follow that 
either his sincerity will be doubted, or his good sense questioned : 
he will be thought by some to have renounced and condemned 
vital and true religion, and by others, to have disproved its efficacy 
or existence. Even if he ultimately escape the imminent danger 
to which he exposes himself of spiritual shipwreck, never can he 
hope to enjoy that elevation of soul, that solid peace and joy in 
believing, or that extensive influence as a servant of God, which 
are reserved for those who, " through honor and dishonor, through 
evil report and good report," proceed straight forward in their Chris- 
tian course, and are studious only to discover how much they can 
do for their great Lord, and how they can best " walk worthy of 
their high calling." Contemplate for a moment the prodigious 
difference in the eyes of men between the two following charac- 
ters : — the one professing religion, but departing from the general 
strictness of its most esteemed professors ; nominally classing 
himself with those who, as " a chosen generation, a holy nation, 



212 APPENDIX. 

a royal priesthood, a peculiar people," are daily laboring, by God's 
power working in them, to obtain a victory over the world ; and 
yet in practice seeming not afraid or disinclined to associate pretty 
freely with that world, and to join in its plans of unhallowed 
pleasure, — calling himself " a stranger and pilgrim upon earth,*' 
yet appearing to live among its inhabitants rather as in his own 
than as in a strange country ; — the other reversing this picture in 
all its parts, and, while he abounds in candor, and kindness, and 
beneficence towards all around him, conducting himself among 
the busy or the idle crowd, as one who views their pursuits in a 
very different light from that in which they themselves view 
them ; as one who has higher aims, whose ruling affections have 
different objects, who orders his life and conversation as even 
now called to sit down, " holy and unblameable, and unreprovea- 
ble, in heavenly places with Christ Jesus," and to partake here- 
after of all the blessings of his eternal and glorious kingdom. Is 
it not plain what a wide difference must appear in these charac- 
ters, especially to those who have an opportunity of viewing them 
closely ? Can it be doubted which will best reflect the adorable 
image of his Saviour, which will most adorn his own high and 
holy profession, and which will impress mankind with the great- 
est respect and esteem both for his own character and his religious 
principles ? 

And now, my dear R., it is time that I should close this long 
letter. You know that it has been dictated by a sense of duty, 
and by love for you ; and I hope it is not stained by any dispo- 
sition to severe criticism, or by a wish to deprive youth of its in- 
nocent and Christian pleasures. If I have pointed out dangers to 
which you do not think yourself exposed, and said things which 
you imagine I need not to have said to you, forgive me a wrong 
which has arisen from a recollection of my own youth, and from 
the warmest parental sympathy and anxiety for your temporal and 
eternal welfare. If my years have led me to be too cautious and 
too open to alarm, remember that yours may tempt you to be too 
unguarded and sanguine. Above all, reflect that on a point of 
such infinite importance, it is incomparably safer to err on the 
side of caution and circumspection, than on that of carelessness 
and temerity. I really believe that the love and fear of God are 
in your heart. May that blessed Spirit who has implanted them 
there, cause them to increase and abound and bring forth fruit to 
perfection ! But when you read of the enemy secretly sowing 
tares among the wheat ; and of a Demas who departed from the 
Apostle, because "he loved this present world ;" you cannot be 
much surprised at the solicitude of your father, or think his ad- 
monition altogether out of place. 



Yours most affectionately, 



R. S. 



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